Getting your payment

You'll get your first payment after your first Parental Leave Pay day. We’ll pay Parental Leave Pay to you directly or your employer will pay it to you in line with your regular payment cycle. This is different to getting paid maternity or parental leave funded by your employer.

When your employer will pay you

If you meet all of the following criteria, your employer will pay your Parental Leave Pay in line with your regular pay cycle:

• you’ve worked for them for at least one year before the birth or adoption of your child
• they’re Australian based
• you’ve requested a block of payment of at least 8 weeks excluding Saturdays and Sundays
• you’ll stay employed by them until at least the end of the block
• the block is your first payment of Parental Leave Pay for the child
• it’s within a year of the child’s birth or adoption
• it doesn’t contain any weekends
• it’s made up of consecutive weekdays with no breaks.

If you meet this criteria but your child has died or was stillborn, you can ask us to pay you instead.

If you don’t meet these criteria, your employer doesn’t have to pay your Parental Leave Pay. But they can in some cases if you both agree.

For this to happen, your employer will need to do both of the following:

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

If your employer doesn’t do this before you submit your claim, they won’t be able to pay your Parental Leave Pay.

Changes to your days

If you make changes to your nominated days before your block starts or after your employer begins paying you, we may take over making your payment. If this happens, your employer won’t start paying your Parental Leave Pay again. It will be paid directly by us to you.

We may start paying you if any of the following apply:

• you change the start date of your block of payment
• you change nominated days that are during your block of payment
• you let us know you worked on a weekday during your block of payment.

In some circumstances, your employer will continue to pay you. If you’re unsure how changing your days will affect your payment, call us on the Centrelink families line.

Your first payment

If your employer is delivering your payment, we’ll give them the funds when we finalise your claim. You’ll usually get paid on your next regular payday after your first day of Parental Leave Pay.

It could take longer if your employer gets the funds after their payroll cut off. In these cases, you’ll get your payment on the following payday.

Tax withholding and deductions

If your employer pays your Parental Leave Pay, they:

• 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.

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 will 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
• your child has died or was stillborn and you request we pay you instead of your employer.

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

We’ll pay you into your bank account every 2 weeks, after the days you selected.

Tax withholding and deductions

From your payment, all of the following will apply:

• we’ll withhold PAYG tax
• we’ll deduct child support if we are required to do so
• you can voluntarily ask us to deduct family assistance debts.

We don’t provide salary sacrifice.

How your payment will be taxed

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

If we pay your Parental Leave Pay, we’ll withhold PAYG tax 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 will need to pay additional tax at tax time.

If your employer pays your Parental Leave Pay to you, they’ll withhold tax at your usual tax rate. 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.