Australia’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme
5. Paid Parental Leave eligibility
To be eligible for Paid Parental Leave, a person must:
- be the primary carer of a child born or adopted on or after 1 January 2011;
- be the mother of the newborn child or the parent of the adopted child*;
- be in paid work* and have:
- been engaged in work continuously for at least 10 out of the 13 months prior to the birth or adoption of the child;
- worked at least 330 hours in the 10 month period (an average of around one day of paid work per week);
- not have worked between the date of birth or adoption of the child and their nominated start date for Paid Parental Leave; and
- have an adjusted taxable income of $150,000 or less in the financial year prior to the date of birth or adoption of the child or the date of their claim, whichever is earlier.
PPL will be payable to mothers in the tragic circumstance of a stillborn baby.
PPL will cover employees, including casual workers, as well as contractors and the self-employed, many of whom currently have no access to employer-provided PPL entitlements.
If a primary carer returns to work before they have received all of their PPL entitlement, they may be able to transfer the unused part of their PPL to another primary carer (usually the father) who meets eligibility requirements.
The PPL entitlement will be able to be taken in conjunction with, or in addition to, employer-provided paid maternity and parental leave, and other employer-provided leave entitlements (see part 9).
Parents who meet the eligibility criteria for PPL can choose to receive the Baby Bonus and other family assistance under the usual rules instead of receiving PPL. The Productivity Commission estimated that around 14 per cent of all eligible parents would elect for this option as the net benefit of the PPL scheme in their particular circumstances would be similar to or less than their family assistance entitlements.
An online calculator will be available to help parents assess the relative benefits of participating in the scheme in their individual circumstances.
Emily and Theo have been working for several years prior to the birth of their first child, Olivia, on 5 August. Emily and Theo earned $52,000 a year each prior to the birth of their baby.
Emily is not eligible for paid maternity leave from her employer. She is eligible for PPL and receives taxable payments of $543.78 per week for 18 weeks, a total of $9788. These begin from her first full pay period after the birth.
Emily cares full-time for her daughter and does not return to work before 30 June.
In the financial year of Olivia’s birth, Emily and Theo receive around $2300 more in net family assistance and PPL, than they would have without PPL.
Generally calculated using 2008-09 rates.
See Appendix, Worked Example 1 for details.
*There are likely to be a number of ‘special circumstances’ in which a person who does not meet these criteria may be eligible for PPL. Details of these arrangements will be finalised during implementation.
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