Delivery of Parental Leave Pay (PPL) 007-09010020

A separate procedure applies for checking the status and the payment delivery role for a Parental Leave Pay (PPL) claim assessment, including where the claim status is assessed (ASS).

For children born or entered care on or after 1 July 2023, if an employer determination is made, the employer will be responsible for the delivery of PPL when the customer nominated:

• an 8 week (40 consecutive weekdays) minimum block of continuous PPL days (Monday to Friday only), and
• the PPL days fall before the child turns one/anniversary of care

The employer determination only applies to the first block of PPL days since birth/entry to care.

Services Australia will deliver:

• any subsequent days, including periods of 8 weeks or longer that are separated from the first block
• any other pattern of days from that described above

For children born or adopted before 1 July 2023, if an employer determination is made, the employer will be responsible for the delivery of:

• the full PPL period of up to 12 weeks, plus
• any Flexible PPL days that the employee has connected to the end of their PPL period

All other Flexible PPL days will be delivered by Services Australia, regardless of the employer determination outcome. Employers cannot elect to deliver these days.

Note: connected Flexible PPL days cannot be paid more than 52 weeks after the child’s birth or adoption. Any connected Flexible PPL days scheduled after the child’s first birthday or anniversary of adoption will not be:

• connected to the PPL period, or
• delivered by the employer

When the PPL claim is assessed, an employer determination is made for the employer to be responsible for the delivery of PPL to an eligible employee who:

• has been an employee of the employer for 12 months or more immediately prior to the child's expected date of birth or entry into care (for Australian Public Service (APS) employees, the employment period is covered by all APS employment)
• will be an employee of the employer for the employer paid period
• is an Australian-based employee of the employer
• is expecting to receive 8 weeks (40 consecutive weekdays) or more of PPL (Monday to Friday), and
• is not in receipt of an income support payment (ISP)

The employer must also have an Australian Business Number (ABN).

Once an employer determination is in place, it should continue until the date of the gap, or weekend day, or the end of the continuous PPL days (even if the customer reduces the period to less than 8 weeks).

Note: for APS employees, if the employee has worked for the APS for more than 12 months, then an employer determination would be made by their current APS employer, regardless of the duration with that particular agency or department.

If the customer is an eligible employee, they will not have the option to choose who will deliver the payment. This includes employees who are full-time, part-time, casual, seasonal, contract and self-employed workers. Exception: if a child is stillborn or has died, a PPL employee should be given the choice of payment delivery by Services Australia or their employer (this includes when PPL might have already started).

The employer obligation to accept a PPL employer determination is not removed, where a person:

• is casually employed, or
• does not have a shift scheduled during their employer delivered period,
• is usually employed on a temporary contract and intends to return to work with the same employer, or
• is not on the current payroll

Staff will need to undertake discussions with the employee and the employer to obtain evidence and an understanding of the employee’s work history and pattern of employment to assist them determine whether the employer is obligated to deliver PPL to them.

The Resources page has a matrix to determine whether a customer meets the requirements to have either a mandatory or opt-in PPL employer determination made for their claim. This depends:

• on the details that they have provided in their claim, and
• the class of employees that their employer has opted in for

If the employer is not responsible for providing PPL to the employee, it will be delivered by Services Australia . However, employers can elect to provide PPL for all full-time, part-time, permanent and casual employees, regardless of how long they have been working for the employer. Services Australia must obtain the consent from the employee before making an employer determination.

Employers must register their details with Services Australia using Provider Digital Access (PRODA) to access the Business Hub, then opt in to provide Parental Leave Pay before their employee submits their claim. For more details see Employer registration for PPL.

Changes to employer circumstances resulting in revocation/transfer of the employer role will be actioned by the Paid Parental Leave Employer Processing Team (PPLEPT).

If a PPL employee's PPL is to be delivered by Service Australia, and the employee requests to appoint their employer as their payment nominee the associated risks for PPL customers using employers as payment nominees should be brought to their attention.

Service Officers should make employees aware of their entitlement to specify an end date for nominee arrangements.

Although the employee's employer may not be legally required to provide the employee's PPL, they may elect to do so, and the employee should be encouraged to discuss this option with their employer.

PPL funds will be delivered in advance to the employer, who will then provide PPL to the employee through their existing payroll cycle. Employers can elect to receive funding fortnightly, or they may opt to receive funds 6-weekly in 3 instalments. This will display on the Payment Summary (PS) screen of the employee as 6WE (6-weekly).

Where the employer selects irregular/other as their pay cycle frequency, the employer will not be able to input pay cycle dates and funding will only be delivered in 6 weekly instalments.

It is important to note that payments from an employer will be aligned to the employer's payroll cycle. This means any PPL delivery information on an employee's record will reflect when payment was made to the employer, not when payment was delivered from the employer to the employee.

The first payment will not be provided to the employer unless the employee is PPL/CUR on the relevant strip date. The employer pay strip date is 2 working days before the employer pay delivery date.

Note: as employer payments are sent 7 days before the employer's pay cut off it is not unusual for some time to elapse between the claim being granted and the first payment to the employer being issued.

Employers are required to:

• provide back pay of PPL in the next available regular payday and withhold tax from the back pay under the usual Pay As You Go (PAYG) withholding arrangements
• pay PPL to their employee as part of their usual payroll cycle
• provide the employee with a written record of the payment and any deductions (payslip)
• withhold tax from the PPL under the usual PAYG withholding arrangements, and
• include PPL in the total amounts on the employee's annual or part-year payment summary (statements produced and given to the employee for tax purposes)

Letters are issued to the employer to advise them when an employer determination has been made for them to provide PPL to an employee, as well any changes to the determination.

It is not possible to issue urgent payments to employers or transfer the provider role to Services Australia because a payment is yet to be provided to the employee. The employer has no obligation under the scheme to provide payments at any time, other than the regular payday and once sufficient funds have been received by Services Australia.

Services Australia will provide PPL to an employee, at commencement or during the PPL payment period, when:

• the conditions for an employer determination are not met, or
• the employee is receiving an income support payment and claims PPL for a child born or entering care

Services Australia may decide not to make an employer determination where the:

• child in respect of whom PPL is payable is stillborn or has died
• employer does not have an Australian Business Number (ABN). For example, people who are not in a business and employ household workers such as cleaners, nannies or gardeners. In these cases, there is no requirement for the employer to have an ABN
• employer does not have an Australian bank account
• employer is not a fit and proper person

PPL will also be delivered directly to the customer if they are an independent contractor, or self-employed with no additional employees.

• For children born or adopted before 1 July 2023:
• customer is a tertiary claimant
• customer's PPL period has ended
• primary claimant owes a debt in relation to an instalment paid in relation to a child and the customer is a secondary claimant for the same child
• any Flexible PPL days that are not connected to the PPL period
• For children born or adopted on or after 1 July 2023
• where a customer has claimed a day on the weekend (ie: Saturday or Sunday)
• any subsequent PPL days, including periods of 8 weeks or longer that are separated from the first period
• where the customer is already current and a day or more is added before the continuous block and the new day(s) are not a continuous block of at least 8 weeks of consecutive weekdays

In these cases Services Australia will:

• pay PPL as fortnightly instalments to the customer into their nominated Australian bank account
• withhold tax at a rate of 15% unless the customer specifies another amount
• pay PPL to a nominee if requested by the customer (Note: when a customer has or requests a payment nominee, it may indicate the customer is not able to provide enough care for the child to meet PPL eligibility. If the customer is unable to provide this care it may be more appropriate for another person to claim PPL for the child)

Employer as Paymaster

The employer will be the paymaster if:

• the customer’s first claimed PPL days:
• consist of a minimum period of 40 consecutive weekdays (Monday to Friday only – no weekend PPL days claimed) and
• all of the 40 consecutive weekdays occur before the child’s first birthday/anniversary of care
• the employer will continue as the paymaster where the claim is assessed (ASS) pending PPL days nomination and:
• any additional weeks or days are claimed (Monday to Friday) with no break, before or after, the initial (or more) 40 weekdays claimed in the customer’s PPL claim, as long as they are consecutive (no gaps) and the 40 consecutive weekdays occur before the child’s first birthday/anniversary of care

Note: Where:

• an additional block consisting of a minimum 40 consecutive weekdays is claimed prior to the existing employer paid block period, and
• there is a break between the two block periods:
• the employer will be the paymaster for the first period only, and
• Services Australia will be the paymaster for the second period

The employer paymaster will transfer to Services Australia if:

• after the first consecutively claimed PPL days within the child’s first year since birth or entry into care and:
• there is a gap between two blocks of consecutive PPL days, (this could be Monday to Friday only), Services Australia will be the paymaster after the gap, or
• if part of the first continuous block of PPL days goes past the child’s first birthday or anniversary of care, Services Australia will be the paymaster from the child’s first birthday or anniversary of care(for example the customer claimed 90 consecutive days and only 60 were before the child’s first birthday or anniversary of care)
• additional PPL days are nominated within the employer paid period (Saturday and/or Sunday):
• The employer period will end on the weekday prior to the nominated weekend day
• The paymaster transfer will occur on the first weekend day nominated
• All remaining days in the employer period will be paid by Services Australia
• a date is withdrawn from the employer paid period (Monday to Friday):
• The employer period will end on the weekday prior to the nominated date
• The paymaster transfer will occur from the withdrawn date
• All remaining days in the employer period will be paid by Services Australia
• a weekday is rejected for any reason other than Working on a PPL day (WOD):
• The employer period will end on the weekday prior to the rejected date
• The paymaster transfer will occur from the rejected date
• All remaining days in the employer period will be paid by Services Australia
• a weekday is rejected for reason Working on a PPL day (WOD):
• The employer period will end on the weekday prior to the rejected date
• The paymaster transfer will occur from the rejected date.
• The rejected day and all remaining days in the employer period will be returned to the customer’s available PPL days balance
• if a termination of employment is notified on a weekday:
• The employer period will end on the weekday prior to the rejected date
• The paymaster transfer will occur from the termination date
• All remaining days in the employer period including the rejected date will be paid by Services Australia
• if a termination of employment is notified on a weekend day:
• The employer period will end on the weekday prior to the rejected date
• The paymaster transfer will occur from the termination date
• All remaining days in the employer period including the rejected date will be paid by Services Australia
• if the first PPL day of the first block of continuous PPL days is rejected for any reason except PDP (PPL day prior to expected/actual DOB/DOP), the paymaster will be determined as Services Australia from the rejected day onwards

The employer paymaster will not transfer to Services Australia if the Working on a PPL day (WOD) is notified for a weekend day (Saturday or Sunday):

• The paymaster role will not change, and
• the employer will continue to be paymaster for the remainder for the employer paid period

For more information, see:

• Claiming and managing Paid Parental Leave (PPL) days for children born or entering care on or after 1 July 2023, and
• Cancellation, rejection, not effective, assessed and current zero rate codes for Parental Leave Pay (PPL)

Services Australia as paymaster

Services Australia will be paymaster if:

• the customer’s first nominated PPL days are:
• continuous weekdays (Monday to Friday) but are less than 40 weekdays
• continuous weekdays (Monday to Friday) but less than 40 weekdays are payable before the child’s first birthday or anniversary of care
• are continuous but include Saturday and/or Sunday within the first 8 weeks
• all nominated PPL days are prior to the date of receipt of the PPL claim (due to 100 days backdating)
• the child is deceased or stillborn and the customer has requested Services Australia to be the paymaster.
• the:
• customer’s PPL claim has a status of ASSessed and they do not meet the employer determination requirements prior to the first employer determined block, and
• there is a gap of at least one weekday between the nominated days and the first day of the existing block
• Services Australia will be the paymaster for all claimed PPL days including the existing block

Where Services Australia is determined as the paymaster, Services Australia will stay as the paymaster even if there is any change of circumstances including nomination of the days to be at least 40 continuous weekdays.

If an employee is receiving an ISP at the time of the initial PPL claim determination (including where the ISP will cancel due to PPL payments) and the PPL claim is for a child that is born or entering care, Services Australia will be the PPL paymaster. No employer determination will be made.

Employees already in receipt of PPL that have had an employer determination made (either the PPL payment has commenced or has been scheduled to commence) and who are granted an ISP will have the paymaster role automatically transferred from the employer to Services Australia. The date of effect for the transfer will be the PPL date paid to + 1 day to ensure there is no overpayment raised against the employer.

Once Services Australia has been appointed as the paymaster, future reassessments will not change the paymaster.

This automatic paymaster role transfer does not apply where an ISP is granted to the PPL employee’s partner. It only applies if the PPL employee themselves are granted an ISP.

Holiday processing arrangements apply to the delivery of PPL where employer delivery dates are impacted by a national public holiday.

The revised date of payment delivery is based on the employer's 'regular pay cut off date' and will generally be delivered a couple of days earlier than the usual delivery date in these circumstances.

Employers have an obligation to pay PPL to their employees when they are funded to do so and to provide PPL in line with their employee's normal pay cycle. If an employer fails to comply with these responsibilities normal dispute resolution procedures apply.

If it is known that an employer has shut down for a period of time (for example, Christmas shutdown period) and there is the possibility of a delay in the employer acceptance process, which will cause a delay in payment to the employee, it may be appropriate to revoke the employer determination and transfer PPL payment responsibility.

An employer is not expected to commence payments to the employee prior to receiving funding from Services Australia however, there is nothing to stop them from doing so. Employers are only required to pay an instalment to an employee if an employer determination has been made and they have received funds from Services Australia.

If a third party receives a payment or payments they are not entitled to, they are responsible for repaying this amount. This includes when payment(s) have been incorrectly credited to a third party’s account, including a joint account.

Care must be taken if the payment was directed to an account nominated by the employee and the employee does not have legal access to. A refund should only be requested if:

• the employee made a genuine error when notifying the account details
• the account details were changed without the authority of the employee, or
• there was an Services Australia error

If payments have been incorrectly credited to a third party’s account, a request for refund is made under:

• section 1234AA of the Social Security Act 1991,
• section 93A of the Family Assistance Administration Act 1999,
• section 169 of the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010, or
• section 42A of the Student Assistance Act 1973

A Request for Refund (RFR) should be initiated on the employee’s record. Only whole payments can be requested and each payment must be requested individually. If there are multiple payments, the system totals the amount at the end of the day then sends a consolidated request to the financial institution.

Under Section 169 of the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010, a third party debt is only a debt due to the Commonwealth if the incorrect payment was made by Services Australia. If an employer pays the Parental Leave Pay (PPL) into an incorrect account the amount is a debt due to the employer and Services Australia has no role in the recovery process.

Note: if Services Australia pays the PPL funds which are intended for an employer account but are deposited into an incorrect account, see Table 2 on the Process page.