Giving approval to share Parental Leave Pay

Your family should discuss if you’re sharing Parental Leave Pay and how many Parental Leave Pay days each parent will take. To share your payment, the other parent needs to claim.

When they’ve started their claim, we’ll ask them for information about you. This is so we can ask you if you give them approval to share Parental Leave Pay and the number of days they can take. We'll do this using your Centrelink online account. They can’t submit their claim until you tell us if you do or don’t give your approval to share.

You must have a Centrelink Customer Reference Number (CRN)

You must have a CRN and you must have linked your Centrelink online account to myGov. You must do this before the other parent can submit their claim, even if you’re not claiming a payment for yourself. If you don’t already have a Centrelink online account, you’ll need to create one. You can read more about how to set up an online account.

To help us find your Centrelink online account, we’ll ask the other parent to give us some details about you in their claim, including your:

• Customer Reference Number
• name
• date of birth
• relationship to the child
• address
• contact number.

Make sure the other parent gives us the same details that we have recorded for you. This information will help us find your Centrelink online account.

You don’t have to give your CRN to the other parent, but it will help us find your online account.

Information for birth mothers

You can give approval to share Parental Leave Pay with any of the following:

• your partner
• the child’s biological father
• the partner of the child’s biological father.

If you give approval, you need to tell us how many Parental Leave Pay days you’re sharing with the other parent. You don’t need to tell us which days you’re sharing with them. They’ll select their own days, but they can’t select more days than you have shared with them.

The other parent can only get Parental Leave Pay if you meet the work test. If you haven’t given us your work test details already, you’ll need to give us this information.

If you don’t give approval to share Parental Leave Pay with the other parent, they won’t get Parental Leave Pay. We’ll tell the other parent you haven’t given approval to share.

Information for the first adoptive parent or gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement

If you’re the first adoptive parent, or first gaining parent, to claim Parental Leave Pay, you can give approval to share with the other parent.

If you give approval, you need to tell us how many Parental Leave Pay days you’re sharing with the other parent. You don’t need to tell us which days you’re sharing with them. They’ll select their own days, but they can’t select more days than you have shared with them.

If you don’t give approval to share Parental Leave Pay with the other parent, they won’t get Parental Leave Pay. We’ll tell the other parent you haven’t given approval to share.

If we can’t find your Centrelink online account

If we can’t find your online account, you need to complete the Parental Leave Pay verification task. This will help us find your online account.

We’ll give the other parent some information in their claim about what you need to do. They can print this information to give to you. It will include the claim number for the other parent’s claim, and a temporary access code.

Follow these steps:

1. Select Parental Leave Pay Verification.
2. Enter the claim number and temporary access code given to you by the other parent, then select Login.
3. Complete all questions.
4. Click Confirm.

Make sure you enter your details exactly as recorded in your Centrelink online account. You’ll need to provide all of the following:

• Customer Reference Number
• name
• date of birth
• contact number
• address.

We’ll use the information you give us to find your Centrelink online account.

When we find your Centrelink online account

When we find your online account, we’ll create an online task for you to complete. We’ll also send you a message in your myGov account to let you know the task is there.

Follow these steps:

1. Access your Centrelink online account through myGov.
2. Select the task Request to share Parental Leave Pay.
3. Complete all questions.
4. Click Submit.

When you’ve provided all the required information and submitted the task, we’ll notify the other parent that they can submit their claim for Parental Leave Pay. They can’t submit their claim until you’ve completed the task.

If you change your mind

You can change your approval, or the number of days you have shared with the other parent. You can’t take back any Parental Leave Pay days the other parent has already taken.

Follow these steps:

1. Access your Centrelink online account through myGov.
2. Select Parental Leave Pay Circumstances.
3. Select Manage claimants and days shared.
4. Complete all questions.
5. Click Submit.