Pregnancy 102-05060000

In the majority of cases, pregnancy will not stop expectant job seekers from looking for work. If a job seeker is pregnant, Service Officers should advise expectant customers to remain on the payment they are currently receiving, for example, Parenting Payment (PP), JobSeeker Payment (JSP), Youth Allowance (YA). YA customers who are dependent will need to be assessed as independent once they have given birth in accordance with Assessing independence when a customer has, or has had, a dependent child.

The customer may be eligible to transfer to Parenting Payment (PP) once the child is born. The claim cannot be made early, but PP can be backdated up to four weeks to the date of the child's birth.

The job seeker should be advised to claim family assistance and Medicare for the child.

If a job seeker is within 13 weeks (but prior to 6 weeks) from their expected date of confinement, they will continue to have mutual obligation requirements. However, they will not have job search requirements.

Job seekers will be exempt from their mutual obligation requirements for six weeks before and six weeks after the child's birth. Note: further information is available in Exempting a job seeker from mutual obligation requirements when they are an expectant customer.

If the customer also has a medical condition, a medical certificate should be provided to determine if an incapacity exemption is required.

There should be very few occasions when there is a need for expectant customers to be paid Special Benefit (SpB). As with all SpB claims, every avenue of support should be explored and exhausted before a claim is granted. SpB may be paid to expectant customers if they qualify and if they are in hardship and have no alternative means of support.