Paid Parental Leave
Paid parental leave
The Paid Parental Leave Scheme is a new Australian Government funded entitlement for the primary carer working parent of children born or adopted from 1st January 2011. Whether you are employed full time, part time or on a casual, contract or seasonal basis you can receive 18 weeks parental leave at the National Minimum wage (currently $570pw). This rate will be reviewed each July and is taxable at the claimant’s marginal tax rate.
To be eligibile to qualify the claimant must:
- be an Australian resident
- have earned less than $150k in the previous financial year
- have worked during 10 of the 13 months prior to the child’s birth/adoption.
If you choose to return to work prior to receiving the full 18 weeks pay you can apply to transfer any unused part of the payment to a partner if they meet the criteria.
You may choose to receive paid parental leave or the baby bonus, but not both - the only exception is in the case of multiple births. Whilst individual circumstances will differ it is expected that most eligible families will be better off receiving paid parental leave rather than the baby bonus.
It is also important to note that Paid Parental Leave may impact on other income support payments families may receive, such as Child Support, HECS, Medicare Surcharge and pension offsets etc.
The paperwork to claim paid parental leave can be lodged up to three months before the baby’s due date and you can choose when to start receiving payments. However all payments must be made during the 52 weeks following the baby’s date of birth or adoption.
The Centrelink website (www.centrelink.gov.au) has a Paid Parental Leave Comparison Estimator, which is a useful tool to estimate how receiving this entitlement may impact on other income support payments and help determine whether Paid Parental Leave or the Baby Bonus is the better option for you.
