Getting your payment

When your employer will pay you

Your employer will pay your Parental Leave Pay to you if all of the following apply:

• you’ve worked for them for at least one year before the birth or adoption of your child
• you’ll stay employed by them until the end of your Paid Parental Leave period
• they’re Australian based
• you expect to get at least 8 weeks of Parental Leave Pay.

If you meet these criteria, your employer will pay your Parental Leave Pay in line with your regular pay cycle. This is for your Paid Parental Leave period.

Your employer will need to pay:

• your 12-week Paid Parental Leave period
• any Flexible Paid Parental Leave days you’ve connected to your Paid Parental Leave period.

If you don’t meet those criteria, your employer won’t have to pay your Parental Leave Pay. But they can if you both agree.

For this to happen, your employer will need to do both of the following before you submit your claim:

• register with us
• opt in to provide Parental Leave Pay.

Your employer:

• will withhold Pay As You Go tax (PAYG) at the usual rate
• will deduct child support from your payment, if they’re required to do so
• won’t need to make additional superannuation contributions, but can if they want to
• will only deliver the Flexible Paid Parental Leave days you’ve connected to your Paid Parental Leave period.

You can arrange for them to make any deductions if needed.

You can salary package, also known as salary sacrifice, some or all of your payment. Read more about salary sacrificing on the Australian Taxation Office website.

When we pay you

We’ll pay you if any of the following apply:

• you don’t have a job
• your employer doesn’t pay your Parental Leave Pay
• you’re self employed
• you get an income support payment from us.

We will pay any Flexible Paid Parental Leave days not paid by your employer.

We’ll pay you into your bank account every 2 weeks.

From your payment:

• we’ll withhold Pay As You Go tax (PAYG)
• we’ll deduct child support if we are required to do so
• you can voluntarily ask us to deduct family assistance debts
• you can arrange for other deductions to be made through Centrepay.

We can’t provide salary sacrifice.

Parental Leave Pay is a taxable Centrelink payment. This means you pay tax on the amount you get and you must declare the income in your tax return.

We’ll withhold Pay As You Go tax (PAYG) at the rate of 15%, unless you ask for a different rate.

Depending on your total taxable income, this rate might not be enough to meet your tax obligations. If it’s not enough, you’ll need to pay additional tax at tax time. You can check the tax rate for your income on the Australian Taxation Office website.

You can increase the withholding rate to be in line with the tax rate for your expected income for the relevant financial year online using self service. Read more about how to deduct tax from your payment.