Parental Leave Pay days can be shared in a number of ways. This depends on your or your family’s circumstances.
1: You can share either some or all the Parental Leave Pay days.
Based on your circumstances, there are different ways to share your Parental Leave Pay with another parent. To help you understand how to share your days, you can use our circumstance checker.
Select the answer that’s relevant to your circumstances.
3: Are you an adoptive parent or gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement?
4: Are you single?
5: Are you the first adoptive parent or first gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement?
If you’re the first to claim Parental Leave Pay when adopting or within a surrogacy arrangement, you should answer yes.
6: Are you the birth mother’s partner, the biological father or the biological father’s partner?
If you’re the birth mother’s partner in a same sex relationship, you should answer yes.
7: Are you the partner of an adoptive parent or partner of the gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement?
8: Are you caring for a child because the birth mother isn’t able to?
We call this claiming under exceptional circumstances.
9: If you’re the birth mother and you’re single
You can get the full number of days of Parental Leave Pay. If you choose to, you can share your days with the other parent.
If you’re giving your child up for adoption or as part of a surrogacy arrangement you can only share Parental Leave Pay while the child is still in your care. Find out more about timeframes for sharing when you’re giving your child up for adoption or as part of a surrogacy arrangement.
How to share
You can give approval to share some or all the Parental Leave Pay days with the other parent. If you choose to share your days, you must meet the work test for the other parent to be eligible, even if you don’t claim any days for yourself. You can take up to 20 Parental Leave Pay days at the same time. There are some exemptions to this limit.
The other parent must also claim Parental Leave Pay to receive the days you share with them. When they claim, we’ll send a task to your Centrelink online account through myGov. You’ll need to complete the task to confirm if you give approval to share Parental Leave Pay. The other parent can only claim the number of days you’ve approved to share with them.
When you claim, make sure to only include the number of days you’re claiming for yourself. If you’re sharing days with the other parent, this should not exceed the maximum number of days.
For example, if you’re eligible for 130 days and you want to share 40 days with the other parent, you can’t claim more than 90 days for yourself.
Read more about the number of Parental Leave Pay days you can get.
10: If you’re the birth mother and you have a partner
You can share some of your Parental Leave Pay with your partner.
Some Parental Leave Pay days will be reserved for your partner to use.
To get the full number of days, both you and your partner need to be eligible and you both need to make a claim.
If only one of you is eligible, the reserved days limit still applies.
If you’re sharing your Parental Leave Pay days with your partner, you can take up to 20 days at the same time. There are some exemptions to this limit.
If you’re giving your child up for adoption or as part of a surrogacy arrangement you can only share Parental Leave Pay while the child is still in your care. Find out more about timeframes for sharing when you’re giving your child up for adoption or as part of a surrogacy arrangement.
How to share
To share your days, you must meet the work test for your partner to be eligible, even if you don’t claim any days for yourself.
Your partner must also claim Parental Leave Pay to receive the days you share with them. When they claim we’ll send a task to your Centrelink online account through myGov. You’ll need to complete the task to confirm if you give approval to share Parental Leave Pay. Your partner can only claim the number of days you’ve approved to share with them.
When you claim, make sure to only include the number of days you’re claiming for yourself. If you’re sharing days with your partner, this should not exceed the maximum number of days.
For example, if you’re eligible for 130 days and you want to share 40 days with the other parent, you can’t claim more than 90 days for yourself.
Read more about the number of Parental Leave Pay days you can get.
11: If you’re the first adoptive parent or first gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement
If you’re the first adoptive parent or gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement, you can claim Parental Leave Pay for the child. You can do this even if a surrogate birth mother has received Parental Leave Pay for the same child. You don’t need to get approval from the surrogate birth mother to claim.
If you’re a single parent you can get the full number of days of Parental Leave Pay. You can also choose to share some or all of your days with another adoptive parent or gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement.
If you have a partner some Parental Leave Pay days will be reserved for your partner to use. To get the full number of days, both you and your partner need to be eligible and you both need to make a claim.
If only one of you is eligible, the reserved days limit still applies.
If you’re sharing your Parental Leave Pay days with the other parent, you can take up to 20 days at the same time. There are some exemptions to this limit.
How to share
If another adoptive parent or gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement claims Parental Leave Pay, we’ll send a task to your Centrelink online account through myGov. You’ll need to complete the task to confirm if you give approval to share Parental Leave Pay. They can only claim the number of days you’ve approved to share with them.
When you claim, make sure to only include the number of days you’re claiming for yourself. If you’re sharing days with the other parent, this should not exceed the maximum number of days.
For example, if you’re eligible for 130 days and you want to share 40 days with the other parent, you can’t claim more than 90 days for yourself.
Read more about the number of Parental Leave Pay days you can get.
12: If you’re the birth mother’s partner, biological father or biological father’s partner
The birth mother must first give approval to share any Parental Leave Pay days with you. You should discuss with them the number of days you’ll both take.
Both you and the birth mother must meet the work test. This means if you meet the work test but they don’t, you won’t be eligible.
If you have a partner, some of your Parental Leave days will be reserved for them to use. If only one of you is eligible, the reserved days limit still applies. If you are sharing the Parental Leave Pay days, you can take up to 20 days at the same time. There are some exemptions to this limit.
However, if the birth mother is unable to care for the child due to exceptional circumstances and you’ll have care of the child for at least 26 weeks, you may be eligible for Parental Leave Pay.
How to share
You must claim Parental Leave Pay for yourself to receive any days shared with you. When you claim, we’ll send a task to the birth mother’s Centrelink online account through myGov. They’ll need to complete the task to confirm if they give approval to share Parental Leave Pay. You can only claim the number of days they’ve approved to share with you.
For example, if your family is eligible for 130 days and they want to take 90 days, they can’t share more than 40 days with you.
Read more about the number of Parental Leave Pay days you can get.
13: If you’re the partner of an adoptive parent or partner of a gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement
Some of the Parental Leave Pay days will be reserved for you. Your partner must first give approval to share the Parental Leave Pay days with you. You should discuss with them the number of days you’ll both take. To get the full number of days, both you and your partner need to claim and be eligible.
If you and your partner are sharing the Parental Leave Pay days, you can take up to 20 days at the same time. There are some exemptions to this limit.
How to share
You must claim Parental Leave Pay for yourself to receive any days shared with you. When you claim, we’ll send a task to your partner using their Centrelink online account through myGov. They’ll need to complete the task to confirm if they give approval to share Parental Leave Pay. You can only claim the number of days they’ve approved to share with you.
For example, if your family is eligible for 130 days and they want to take 90 days, they can’t share more than 40 days with you.
Read more about the number of Parental Leave Pay days you can get.
14: If you’re caring for a child under exceptional circumstances
You may get Parental Leave Pay if you’re caring for a child under exceptional circumstances.
If you are not the child’s parent, exceptional circumstances means that both:
- the birth mother and their partner or first adoptive parent and their partner aren’t able to care for the child
- you’ll care for the child for at least 26 weeks.
If you’re the biological father claiming for the child under exceptional circumstances, and you are not partnered to the birth mother, you can choose to share Parental Leave Pay with your partner, if you have one.
When you claim under exceptional circumstances, you have the option to get the full number of days of Parental Leave Pay yourself.
If you’re the first person to claim for the child under exceptional circumstances, you can also share Parental Leave Pay with your partner, if you have one.
If you’re sharing your Parental Leave Pay days with your partner you can take up to 20 days at the same time. There are some exemptions to this limit.
Read more about the number of Parental Leave Pay days you can get.
How to share
First person to claim
If you’re the first person to claim, you can give approval to share Parental Leave Pay with your partner.
Your partner must also claim Parental Leave Pay to receive the days you share with them. When they claim, we’ll send a task to your Centrelink online account through myGov. You’ll need to complete the task to confirm if you give approval to share Parental Leave Pay. They can only claim the number of days you’ve approved to share with them.
When you claim, make sure to only include the number of days you’re claiming for yourself. If you’re sharing days with your partner, this should not exceed the maximum number of days. For example, if your family is eligible for 130 days and you want to share 40 days with your partner, you can’t claim more than 90 days for yourself.
Second person to claim
If you’re not the first person to claim, you need to lodge a claim for your partner to share Parental Leave Pay days with you.
When you claim Parental Leave Pay, we’ll send a task to your partner using their Centrelink online account through myGov. They’ll need to complete the task to confirm if they give approval to share Parental Leave Pay. You can only claim the number of days they’ve approved to share with you.
Read more about exceptional circumstances.
15: If you’re not eligible to share Parental Leave Pay
Based on the answers you’ve provided, you’re not eligible to share Parental Leave Pay.
Read more about who can get Parental Leave Pay.
If you haven’t met the eligibility rules check what other Centrelink payments you may be able to get.
16: If you’re the second adoptive parent or gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement to claim
The first adoptive parent to claim must give approval to share the Parental Leave Pay days with you if you’re the second adoptive parent to claim. You should discuss with them the number of days you’ll both take.
If you’re the second gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement you can claim Parental Leave Pay for the child. You can do this even if a surrogate birth mother has received Parental Leave Pay for the same child. The first gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement to claim must give approval to share the Parental Leave Pay days with you. You should discuss with them the number of days you’ll both take. You don’t need to get approval from the surrogate birth mother to claim.
If you’re partnered some Parental Leave Pay days will be reserved for you to use.
If only one of you is eligible, the reserved days limit still applies. To get the full number of days, you both need to claim and be eligible.
If you’re sharing the Parental Leave Pay days with the other parent, you can take up to 20 days at the same time. There are some exemptions to this limit.
How to share
When you claim Parental Leave Pay, we’ll send a task to the first adoptive parent or first gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement using their Centrelink online account through myGov. They’ll need to complete the task to confirm if they give approval to share Parental Leave Pay. You can only claim the number of days they’ve approved to share with you.
For example, if your family is eligible for 130 days and they want to take 90 days, they can’t share more than 40 days with you.
Read more about the number of Parental Leave Pay days you can get.