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Parental Leave Pay is a flexible payment that can be shared.
How to use your days
You can take your Parental Leave Pay before or after you return to work. You can take it on any days you’re both:
- caring for the child
- not working, unless it’s for an allowable reason.
This can include weekdays, weekends, holidays or any time you’re on leave from work.
You don’t need to take your days on the same days you were working before you went on leave. For example, if you worked Monday to Friday you can take Parental Leave Pay days on weekends as well.
You can also take your days before, during or after any paid or unpaid employer funded leave. This includes all of the following:
- maternity or parental leave
- annual leave
- long service leave.
When you claim this payment
When you submit your claim, you must nominate at least one day you plan to take. You can’t include or use any days before your child’s birth or adoption.
You can also tell us when you want to take any of the following:
- a block of payment
- a single day
- a combination of these.
If you don’t know when you want to use your remaining days, we’ll hold them in a balance.
You can use them later or share them with your partner or another parent.
You must use them within 2 years of your child’s birth or adoption. We’ll send you a letter to remind you if you still have days to use before this date.
If you’re giving your child up for adoption or as part of a surrogacy arrangement
There are special rules if you’re giving your child up for adoption or as part of a surrogacy arrangement.
This includes all the following:
- any Parental Leave Pay days must be used within the first 24 weeks after the birth of the child if they’re born from 1 July 2025
- any Parental Leave Pay days must be used within the first 26 weeks after the birth of the child if they’re born from 1 July 2026
- any days not taken within this timeframe will be forfeited
- you can only share Parental Leave Pay while the child is still in your care.
How to change and manage your days
After you make a claim online, you can do all the following:
- claim or change Parental Leave Pay days
- give or remove approval for someone else to claim days, if you’re the birth mother or first adoptive parent or gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement to claim Parental Leave Pay
- view details about your Parental Leave Pay.
If your Centrelink account is linked to myGov you can claim or change your Parental Leave Pay days online.
To do this:
- Sign in to myGov.
- Select Menu, then My Family.
- Select Parental Leave Pay circumstances.
If you don’t have a myGov account or a Centrelink online account you’ll need to create them.
What are some examples of taking different days
You can take your Parental Leave Pay days in a range of ways.
These examples don’t cover every situation.
Kym’s child is born on 8 August 2025. Kym works full time Monday to Friday and plans to go back to work after 6 weeks. She chooses to take 30 days or 6 weeks of Parental Leave Pay in a block. Kym keeps the remaining days in her balance.
Kym shares 15 days of Parental Leave Pay with her partner Louise. Louise decides to take the 15 days in the first 3 weeks following the child’s birth.
After 12 weeks back at work, Kym decides to get the remaining 75 days on the weekends. She won’t be working and has care of her child.
Peter and his partner Alicia adopt a child, Tom, on 12 September 2026.
Peter takes time off work to care for Tom. His employer provides paid leave. He decides to use one day of Parental Leave Pay and keep the rest in his balance. He returns to work after 3 months of paid leave from his employer.
Alicia takes 12 weeks off work to care for Tom. Peter shares 60 days or 12 weeks of his Parental Leave Pay with Alicia.
Peter keeps the rest of the Parental Leave Pay in his balance. He then uses the days when he takes leave from work.
You can take up to 20 days at the same time. Fatima and Yusif’s baby is born on 24 July 2026.
Fatima plans to take 8 weeks leave before returning to work. Yusif plans to stop work to care for the baby..
Fatima and Yusif both take Parental Leave Pay for the first 20 days or 4 weeks from the day of birth. Fatima takes another 20 days or 4 weeks before returning to work while Yusif has returned to work for those 20 days.
Fatima share the remaining 70 days with Yusif for him to take the next 14 weeks or 70 days before returning to work.
Zia had a child on 2 July 2026. Zia is single and decides to get her Parental Leave Pay in a single block from the child’s date of birth.
She gets it for Monday to Friday and is paid in her usual pay cycle from her employer.
She gets all 130 days over 26 weeks, until 30 December 2026.
Amira has been able to use her employer’s parental leave first to spend some time at home with her child after the birth.
To help balance her family and work commitments, Amira returns to work part-time or 3 days a week after having her child.
Amira decides to use 2 days of Parental Leave Pay each week to add to the 3 days a week of employment income she gets. This means Amira’s income is similar to what it would be if she was working full-time. She continues to do this until all of her Parental Leave Pay days are used up.
Sienna’s employer has given her 12 weeks of maternity leave after the birth of her child. Sienna has chosen to take this at half pay so she can have a longer time at home with her baby. This means Sienna can have 24 weeks paid maternity leave off work. Sienna has decided to use 3 days a week of Parental Leave Pay so her income during this time will be similar to what it would be if she was working full-time.
Sienna will still have some days left at the end of the 24 weeks, which she can choose to use in the way that best suits her family at the time. Sienna doesn’t have to decide straight away how she is going to use all her Parental Leave Pay days. We’ll hold them in a balance for up to 2 years after the child’s birth.
Giovani’s baby enters his care on 4 September 2026. Giovani is eligible for 14 weeks of paid leave from his employer. He’s also eligible to get Parental Leave Pay for 26 weeks. After using the 14 weeks of leave from his employer, Giovani’s circumstances change and he wants to start doing one shift a week at his workplace.
Giovani signs in to his Centrelink online account through myGov and changes his planned block of Parental Leave Pay into smaller blocks. This allows him to return to work one day a week while still using his Parental Leave Pay days on the other days he’s not working.