Yes, you can claim Family Tax Benefit (FTB) as early as 3 months before your baby's expected due date in Australia, allowing you to get payments started sooner and potentially receive the Newborn Upfront Payment and Supplement, but you must finalise the claim after the baby is born by providing proof of birth and identity. Claiming early helps prepare for the new arrival and ensures payments start quickly, but eligibility and amounts are confirmed after the baby arrives and you provide all necessary documents, notes Services Australia, Services Australia, Services Australia, myGov, myGov.
You can apply for FTB up to 3 months before your child's expected date of birth or adoption. Read more about how to claim Family Tax Benefit.
You can claim Parental Leave Pay before your child is born, but you cannot claim Parenting Payment before your child is born.
Anyone can start maternity leave 12 weeks prior to due date, just because. If you want to go on medical leave, that requires a doctor's note and justification for going off work.
To claim a baby as a dependent, the baby must have been born alive during the current tax year.
For example, if the child was born in December 2025, your client can claim the child on their 2025 tax return (filed in 2026). If the child is born in January 2026, your clients cannot claim them on their 2025 taxes (filed in 2026). The baby can be claimed on their 2026 tax return (filed in 2027) though.
You can apply for Maternity Allowance as soon as you've been pregnant for 26 weeks. Payments can start any time between the 11th week before your baby is due and the day after the baby is born. This guide is also available in Welsh (Cymraeg), British Sign Language (BSL) and easy read format.
Food Assistance
WIC benefits are available to women during and after their pregnancy and include breastfeeding support. To be eligible for WIC, you must meet WIC requirements. To find out if you may be eligible for WIC: Call your state's WIC agency.
If you have a baby, you may be eligible to get Newborn Upfront Payment and Newborn Supplement. You must be both: eligible for Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A. registered or applied to register your child's birth, unless they were born overseas.
Unless specified by your employer, you can continue working right up until your due date if you wanted to. However it's usual to take your leave a week or two before your due date, to avoid the stress of going into labour at work and ensure the safe, planned arrival of your baby.
Centrelink's Parental Leave Pay (PLP) is paid at the National Minimum Wage, which is $948.10 per week before tax for babies born or adopted from July 1, 2025, for up to 24 weeks (120 days) to share as a family, increasing to 26 weeks from July 1, 2026. This payment is for the carer of a new child, and the amount is the same for everyone, regardless of prior earnings, but is subject to tax.
For example, women who have chronic health problems, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, who become pregnant may be considered to have high-risk pregnancies—even if the condition is well controlled. Other factors, such as infections, injuries, and disorders of pregnancy, can also put a pregnancy at high risk.
Australia's $5,000 Baby Bonus ended on March 1, 2014, when the scheme was abolished and replaced by increased Family Tax Benefit payments for eligible families, though it had already been reduced to $3,000 for second and subsequent children from July 1, 2013. The bonus, introduced by the Howard government, provided a one-off payment for new babies, reaching $5,000 for first children before its final removal.
The mother has full decision-making authority regarding the pregnancy, including medical decisions and whether to place the child for adoption. Fathers generally cannot assert legal rights—such as custody or visitation—until after the child is born and paternity is established.
American children born from 2025 through 2028 qualify for a Trump Account “Baby Bonus.” The account will be funded with an initial $1,000 deposit from the U.S. government. Additional family and employer contributions are permitted going forward, subject to annual limits.
You can claim up to 3 months before the birth or adoption of your child. The number of days you get is based on the date your child is born or comes into your care. Check how much you can get.
In 2004, the federal government introduced a universal Baby Bonus—$3,000 per child at birth, later increased to $4,000 and then $5,000—to encourage families to “have one for mum, one for dad, and one for the country,” as then–Treasurer Peter Costello famously put it.
Maximum rate for FTB Part A for each (fortnightly payment):
$222.04 for a child 0 to 12 years. $288.82 for a child 13 to 15 years. $288.82 for a child 16 to 19 years who meets the study requirements $71.26 for a child 0 to 19 years in an approved care organisation.
The "3-2-1 Rule" in pregnancy is a guideline for first-time mothers to know when to call their midwife or doctor for active labor: consistent contractions every 3 minutes, lasting 2 minutes each (or 1 minute long for some variations), for over 1 hour. It helps differentiate true labor from false labor (Braxton Hicks), signaling it's time to head to the birthing center, while subsequent pregnancies often follow the faster 5-1-1 rule.
Income Support
If you don't qualify for Maternity Allowance or Statutory Maternity Pay, are unemployed and can't look for work, or on a low income, you might be able to claim Universal Credit while you're pregnant. Use the benefits calculator from Turn2us to see what you might qualify for.
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program can also offer assistance to pregnant mothers if you are pregnant with no resources.
No, you generally don't get 6 months of full pay on maternity leave in Australia; instead, the government offers Paid Parental Leave (PPL) at the National Minimum Wage for a set number of weeks (up to 24 weeks in 2025-2026, increasing to 26 weeks in 2026-2027). Many employers "top up" this payment to your full wage, or offer their own paid leave, but this depends on your contract or workplace policy, not a universal right to 6 months full pay.
You can start receiving maternity benefits as early as 12 weeks before your due date or the date you give birth. You can't receive these benefits more than 17 weeks after your due date or the date you gave birth, whichever is later. A maximum of 15 weeks of benefits is available.
The formula for how to compute maternity benefits is this: 100% of your average daily salary credit X 105 days. Below you will find the steps on how to compute the SSS maternity benefit.
Family Tax Benefit (FTB) is a 2-part payment for eligible families to help with the cost of raising children. The Family Tax Benefit is made up of 2 parts: Part A — a payment made per child, depending on your family's circumstances. Part B — a payment made per family, to give extra help to families that need it.