Claiming Parental Leave Pay (PPL) 007-09010000

Customers may choose to claim PPL or receive Newborn Supplement (NBS) and Newborn Upfront Payment (NBU) with their Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A. See Claim choice for a newborn or adopted child.

After a stillbirth, customers can choose to claim PPL, or Stillborn Baby Payment (SBP) if they are not eligible for PPL.

PPL is taxable income and is included in a customer's adjusted taxable income for family assistance payments.

Customers (and/or their partners) cannot receive FTB Part B while they are receiving PPL for a child.

PPL is treated as ordinary income for calculating the rate of payment for income support payments.

Customers can lodge a claim for PPL:

• no earlier than the family assistance and PPL allowable early claim period
• up to 52 weeks after their child’s birth or adoption. If an initial effective claim is made within 52 weeks, subsequent claimants then have until the child’s second birthday or anniversary of care to claim

Note: to receive the full amount of PPL, claims must be lodged within the time limits for claiming the maximum PPL entitlement. Customers who lodge after this will not be entitled to receive the maximum:

• 22 weeks (110 payable days) for a child born or adopted on or after 1 July 2024
• 20 weeks (100 payable days) for a child born or adopted between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024
• 18 weeks (90 payable days) a child born or adopted between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023

Encourage customers to lodge an early claim for PPL. This will provide them with an early indication of their eligibility, as they are assessed pending proof of birth or entry into care. They will also have more choice about how and when they can access their payments. Claims lodged before the allowable early claim period cannot be assessed and are made not effective.

Once proof of birth or adoption is provided and the claim assessed, customers with children that are born or adopted:

• on or after 1 July 2023, can access PPL days up to 2 years after the child’s birth or adoption however at least 1 PPL day must be taken before the child’s first birthday or anniversary of care
• before 1 July 2023, can access Flexible PPL days up to 2 years after their child’s birth or adoption

Claims for family assistance and PPL can be made by submitting an online claim or lodging a paper claim.

When a claim is ready to be finalised, online claim data is uploaded onto the customer's record before the claim activity is finalised.

Paper claims and any documentation received for online or paper claims is scanned upon receipt.

The Digitalisation Support Unit (DSU) completes initial processing to link the scanned image to the correct customer record and to record a claim or additional child activity on the customer's record.