Transitional reassessment of claims for Parental Leave Pay (PPL) pre-birth claims 007-23020219

The Paid Parental Leave scheme has changed. For children born or adopted on or after 1 July 2023, Parental Leave Pay (PPL) and Dad and Partner Pay (DAP) combine into one payment. This means DAP ends on 1 July 2023. For children born or adopted before 1 July 2023, previous eligibility and payment rules for PPL and DAP still apply.

For children born or adopted on or after 1 July 2023:

• Dad and Partner Pay (DAP) will no longer be able to be claimed. The 2 weeks (10 payable days) are being rolled into PPL
• Parental Leave Pay (PPL) will increase to 20 weeks (100 payable days) entitlement
• PPL will be fully flexible, meaning all 100 days are to be treated as ‘flexible’ PPL days where they can be accessed:
• In a continuous block
• Single days
• Any combination of smaller continuous blocks and single days
• Primary, secondary and tertiary claim types will be removed.
• Birth mothers no longer need to claim PPL first, or at all, in order for the other parent or partner to receive PPL. Either parent or their partner can claim PPL first.
• Approval to claim and approval to share days is required from the birth mother when:
• the partner of the birth mother claims
• the other parent claims
• the partner of the other parent claims
• These approvals will be obtained via an online task
• In cases of adoption, where there is:
• one adoptive parent, they must give approval to claim and approval to share PPL days to any other claimant (that is, partner of the adoptive parent)
• two adoptive parents, the first adoptive parent to claim must give approval to share PPL days to the other adoptive parent. They do not need to give approval to claim
• A family income test will be introduced, in addition to the individual income test. If the customer does not meet the individual income test then the family income test limit is applied. This applies to both single and partnered customers
• A cap of 18 weeks/90 days will apply for customers who are partnered at the date of claim. The remainder of the entitlement will be reserved on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis for their partner, or the other parent. Note: the birth mother is still required to provide approval to claim and share the ‘reserved’ PPL days. If the partner/other parent is not eligible, the 90 day cap still applies
• Customers who are single at the date of claim can choose to share their days with the other parent, or take all 100 days, no cap is applied
• Customers no longer need to have ‘primary care’ of the child on their PPL days, they just need to have ‘care’ of the child on the day they are claiming. As more than one customer can have care of a child on a day, multiple customers can claim PPL on the same day. There is a maximum of 10 concurrent dates per child. This means a maximum of 10 PPL days can be taken by customers for the same child on the same day
• Fathers and partners may be payable for PPL where the birth mother does not meet the income test or residency test, or is serving a newly arrived residents waiting period (NARWP)
• The birth mother must still meet the work test even if the birth mother is not claiming PPL for the child

Claims where an expected date of birth or date of adoption is on or after 1 July 2023 can only be processed in Process Direct.

During the period 26 March 2023 to 30 June 2023 only birth mothers and first adoptive parents were able to submit a PPL pre-birth claim for a child whose expected date of birth or entry into care is on or after 1 July 2023.

All other claimants were prevented from lodging an online claim for PPL and will be invited to claim on or after 1 July 2023.

If a customer attempted to lodge a paper Claim for Parental Leave Pay and Family Tax Benefit (FA100) see Table 3 in the Process page.

Under the new rules claimants will require approval to claim from the birth mother or first adoptive parent to be able to submit their PPL claim. Approval to share PPL days can be advised by the birth mother and first adoptive parent from 1 July 2023.

Customers will still be able to submit a pre-birth claim for DAP if their child’s expected date of birth or entry into care is on or after 1 July 2023. This is in case the child's actual date of birth or care is before 1 July 2023. However customers will be advised in the online claim that they may prefer to claim after their child is born or comes into care instead.

The online claim for Parental Leave Pay will be updated to include new questions and information from 26 March 2023.

If the child’s expected date of birth or adoption is:

• on or after 1 July 2023, updated Parental Leave Pay questions will be presented and an early claim assessment of PPL under the new rules will be made
• before 1 July 2023, existing Parental Leave Pay questions and information will be presented and an early claim assessment of PPL under the existing rules will be made

PPL claims will be reassessed (if required) under the relevant PPL scheme once proof of birth or adoption is provided, for example, where the child’s expected date of birth or entry into care is:

• on or after 1 July 2023 and the actual date of birth or entry into care is before 1 July 2023
• before 1 July 2023 and actual date of birth or entry into care is on or after 1 July 2023

The Resources page contains examples of how PPL reassessment will be applied to PPL pre-birth claims where:

• the child’s expected date of birth or entry into care was before 1 July 2023, but
• the child’s actual date of birth or entry into care is on or after 1 July 2023

The paper claim for Parental Leave Pay (FA100) will be updated to include new questions and information until 1 July 2023. If a customer lodges a paper claim using an old claim form, they will need to be contacted to provide more information required to assess their claim.