Transferring your payment

If you’re eligible to transfer your payment

You can give some or all of your Parental Leave Pay to another person. You can do this if they’ll be the primary carer of the child, and you’re either the:

• birth mother
• adoptive parent.

You can:

• transfer some or all of your Paid Parental Leave period
• give them permission to claim some or all of your Flexible Paid Parental Leave days.

You will need to tell us which parts they can claim. Read more about giving your Flexible Paid Parental Leave days to another person.

You may want to give some or all of your Parental Leave Pay to another person because you either:

• return to work
• are no longer the primary carer of your child.

To do this, both you and the second carer must first claim and be eligible for Parental Leave Pay.

You can transfer your Parental Leave Pay to any of the following:

• your partner
• the other legal parent of your child
• the partner of your child’s other legal parent.

If you do transfer, the other person may get Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay for the same child. We can’t pay these at the same time. This means they must take their Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay periods at different times. They can only get a maximum of 18 weeks combined payment.

Claims for Dad and Partner Pay closed on 30 June 2024.

What you need to do

You can tell us you want to give some or all your Parental Leave Pay to another person either:

• when you claim
• at a later time.

You will need to tell us:

• what payments you want to give to a second carer
• the date that the second carer will become the primary carer, if you are transferring some or all of your Paid Parental Leave period
• the number of Flexible Paid Parental Leave days you want to give permission for the second carer to claim.

The second carer will need to claim Parental Leave Pay. You should tell them which parts of Parental Leave Pay you want to give to them.

If you’ve already submitted your claim, you should tell us. If your Centrelink online account is linked to myGov, sign in now and select Parental Leave Pay Circumstances.

Sign in to myGov

You can also call the Centrelink families line.

If you want to transfer some of your Paid Parental Leave period

To transfer some of your Paid Parental Leave period to a second carer you and the second carer must both:

• meet all eligibility criteria
• submit a claim.

The second carer can claim up to 52 weeks after the child’s date of birth or adoption.

You and the second carer must get the Paid Parental Leave period in a continuous block. There can’t be a gap between the 2 Paid Parental Leave periods. This means both:

• when your Paid Parental Leave period ends, the second carer’s Paid Parental Leave period starts straightaway
• the second carer must take primary care of the child on the day their Paid Parental Leave period begins.

Read more about payment start dates.

Example of transferring some of your Paid Parental Leave period

Zia has a child, Max. Her Paid Parental Leave period starts from Max’s date of birth. Zia returns to work when Max is 6 weeks old. Her partner, Ravi, takes leave from work and has primary care of Max from the date Zia returns to work.

To transfer the remaining 6 weeks of the Paid Parental Leave period to Ravi, Zia tells us online. She selected Parental Leave Pay Circumstances in her Centrelink online account through myGov and tells us:

• the date she’ll return to work
• she’d like to transfer 6 weeks to Ravi.

Ravi submits a claim and is eligible for Parental Leave Pay. Ravi gets the remaining Paid Parental Leave period for 6 weeks, from the date Zia’s Paid Parental Leave period stopped.

Zia keeps her 30 Flexible Paid Parental Leave days, to take later on days when she’s on leave, before Max turns 2.

If you want to transfer all of your Paid Parental Leave period

To transfer all of the Paid Parental Leave period to a second eligible carer, all of the following must apply:

• you and the second carer must claim and meet all eligibility criteria
• you must both submit your claims around the same time as each other
• you must both submit your claims within 52 weeks of your child’s date of birth or adoption
• you must nominate a Paid Parental Leave period start date for the second carer.

Example of transferring all of the Paid Parental Leave Period

Kym has a child, Tyler, and submits a claim for Parental Leave Pay. Kym plans to go back to work. She transfers all of her 12 week Paid Parental Leave period to her partner, Keith. She also gives Keith permission to use her 30 Flexible Paid Parental Leave days.

Kym has primary care of Tyler from birth, until she goes back to work. On the same date, Keith stops work and takes primary care of Tyler.

Kym must nominate a start date for the Paid Parental Leave period in her claim. She chose the date Keith started to have primary care of Tyler. Keith submits a claim and is eligible from the day he became Tyler’s primary carer. He’s eligible for the full 12 week Paid Parental Leave period. Keith decides to connect the Flexible Paid Parental Leave days to the Paid Parental Leave period, to get a continuous 18 week block.

If you want to give your Flexible Paid Parental Leave days to another person

You can give permission for another person to claim some or all of your Flexible Paid Parental Leave days. But they must be caring for your child.

Read more about giving your Flexible Paid Parental Leave days to another person.

If your family is getting Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay

Your family can get a total of 20 weeks Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay combined. But, as an individual, you can get a maximum of 18 weeks Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay combined.

Claims for Dad and Partner Pay closed on 30 June 2024. You can get 18 weeks of Parental Leave Pay.

Example of getting 20 weeks total as a family

Sarah has a child on 6 March 2023, Tom. Sarah’s Paid Parental Leave period starts from Tom’s date of birth. Sarah returns to work 10 weeks into her Paid Parental Leave period. Her partner, John, takes leave from work and will become primary carer when Sarah returns to work. Sarah transfers the remaining 2 weeks of her Paid Parental Leave Period to John. To do this, Sarah uses her Centrelink online account through myGov to tell us:

• the date she’ll return to work
• she wants to transfer her remaining Paid Parental Leave period to John.

It’s important that Sarah does this before she returns to work.

Sarah keeps her 30 Flexible Paid Parental Leave days to take on days she is not working. She must take them before Tom turns 2.

John claims and is eligible for Parental Leave Pay. John gets the remaining 2 weeks of the Paid Parental Leave Period.

When John’s Parental Leave Pay ends, he claims and is eligible for the full 2 weeks of Dad and Partner Pay.

This means as a family they get 20 weeks of combined Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay.

Example of getting a maximum of 18 weeks Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay as an individual

Kate has a child on 12 January 2023, Louise. She submitted a claim for Parental Leave Pay and was eligible. She transferred all her Paid Parental Leave period to her partner, Daniel. Kate also gave permission to Daniel to use the Flexible Paid Parental Leave days. Even though Kate was eligible for Parental Leave Pay, she didn’t take any before she went back to work.

Daniel claimed and was eligible for the full 2 weeks of Dad and Partner Pay. He got this from the day Louise was born. Daniel took over primary care of Louise when Kate went back to work.

Daniel submitted a claim for Parental Leave Pay and was eligible. Because Daniel already got Dad and Partner Pay, he couldn’t get the full 18 weeks of Parental Leave Pay. This is because as an individual, he can’t get more than 18 weeks Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay combined. Daniel was eligible for 16 weeks Parental Leave Pay for Louise. This includes the 12 week Paid Parental Leave period and 20 Flexible Paid Parental Leave days. There are 10 Flexible Paid Parental Leave days left over that Daniel can’t take.

Kate can remove permission for Daniel to use the days. She can take back those 10 Flexible Paid Parental Leave days to use before Louise turns 2.