Recent amendments to the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010 (Cth) make payments more accessible, flexible, and gender-neutral for Federal system employees.
Under the current scheme, either parent and other eligible carers can claim up to a total of 18 weeks of paid parental leave. This increases to 20 weeks from 1 July 2023. Payments can only be claimed in the first two years after the child’s birth or adoption. The scheme is funded by the Commonwealth, so a claim for payments is made to Centrelink, not the employer. The entitlement extends to employees who are full-time, part-time, casual, seasonal, contractors, or self-employed.
The amendments:
- Enable families to decide which parent will claim first and how they will share the entitlement and are not limited to a small class of claimants. Allowing households to decide how best to care for a child.
- Provide greater flexibility, with claimants allowed to take the available leave in multiple blocks of as little as a day at a time with no requirement to return to work to be eligible.
- Impose a new $350,000 family income limit for eligibility, under which families can be assessed if an individual applicant does not meet the individual income test.
- Expand the eligibility requirements to allow a father or partner to receive paid parental leave, regardless of whether the birth parent meets the income test or residency requirements, or is serving a newly arrived resident’s waiting period.
Payments are at the rate of the national minimum wage. Employers are not obliged to make superannuation contributions during the leave period. Paid parental leave does not count as paid leave for the purposes of the National Employment Standards (NES) and, therefore, does not count as service for the purposes of other entitlements.
The By Lawyers Employment Law publication has been updated accordingly.