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Employee eligibility for Parental Leave Pay

It is an employee’s responsibility to lodge their claim for Parental Leave Pay. Then we will assess their eligibility. Full-time, part-time, casual, seasonal, contract, and self-employed workers may all be eligible.

To be eligible for Parental Leave Pay, an employee must:

• be the primary carer (usually the mother) of a newborn or recently adopted child
• meet Australian residence requirements from the date the child enters their care until the end of their Paid Parental Leave period
• have met the Paid Parental Leave work test before the birth or adoption occurs
• have received an individual adjusted taxable income of $150 000 or less in the financial year before the date of birth or adoption or the date of claim, whichever is earlier, and
• be on leave or not working, from when they become the child’s primary carer until the end of their Paid Parental Leave period.

To meet the Paid Parental Leave work test, your employee must have:

• worked at least 10 of the 13 months before the birth or adoption of their child and
• worked for at least 330 hours in that 10-month period (just over one day a week), with no more than an eight-week gap between any two consecutive working days.

Note: in the case of stillbirth or infant death, the scheme will allow eligible employees to continue to receive their Parental Leave Pay. If they choose to return to work before the end of their Paid Parental Leave period, they will not lose their entitlement to Parental Leave Pay.