The Baby Bonus

[little sprocket]

Morning Ladies,

Just out of curiosity, how long did it take centre link/family assistance to pay your baby bonuses? It took nine weeks with my first and was hoping that it wouldnt take as long this time around because thier excuse last time was that we were new to the system and it takes a long time to get our details up and running in the system (blar blar blar).

[Beach Mama]

Hi Jodie, Izzy was born in May and we recieved our baby bonus about 10 days after we called them! Good luck and hopefully it arrives a bit quicker this time!

[Lulu]

What bollocks - 9 weeks is totally unacceptable and the excuse was even worse. They have a time limit of 30 days to have it done, if they take longer than this - start screaming.

[PinkPalace]

It took us 4 days for the baby bonus. But almost 2 months for them to sort out the rest of the payments! (all of which we get $22 a week.... woo hooo!!! lol)

[Lulu]

PM did you ever get it sorted why your payments were so low?

[little sprocket]

I did ring screaming and yelling from day 30 onwards but they would just lie and say "its happening tomorrow". I had to go back to work early just to bring in some money and my baby was only 10 weeks old. This time we are well and truly prepared but still I dont want them to take there time. I was thinking cos my baby should be born around the same time the daycare rebate is coming, it would slow down the process cos they will be too busy. Im coming up for the excuses for them this time just to prepare myself.

[Karina]

Our baby bonus took 4 weeks to come through.

[Tobily]

It only took about 10 days after I lodged the form for both of mine...I was pleasantly surprised!

[Lulu]

it shouldn't be too much of a hassle this time as they only need to add a child to your record, the rest should take care of itself.

[~Jo~]

Took 3 days for ours.

Jo

[chon]

It took 4 days for us and we were new to the system.

[little sprocket]

Wow 3 and 4 days. Thats owesome. Maybe they have a better system these days. With your second child, do u still need to go into a family assistance office to lodge all the forms or do u just ring up and tell them u have had another baby and they update everything over the phone or online.

[Tobily]

Wow 3 and 4 days. Thats owesome. Maybe they have a better system these days. With your second child, do u still need to go into a family assistance office to lodge all the forms or do u just ring up and tell them u have had another baby and they update everything over the phone or online.

No you still have to hand in all the forms again - the hospital has to fill in part of the form to verify the birth so they still need a hard copy.
Both of mine were barely out and I had FAO forms shoved under my nose to read Hospy's are pretty on it

[Lulu]

You can post them in if it's a hassle..

[briggsy's girl]

you can post the forms or deliver to centrelink or medicare office

the expected turn around is within 3 weeks of when ALL information is received - so if they need to send a request for information, it can take a bit longer. new claims usually take longer, as they need to get proof of identification for both partners as well as the paperwork and info over the phone

for second (or more children) - if you're actively receiving your family tax benefit, it won't take as long as your initial claim - but there is still a 3 week window for them to get it processed before anyone can push it through as an unreasonable time frame - you might find that some are processed more rapidly because there are fewer claims at their local office at the time they lodge. if you are not receiving family tax benefit payments, you will have to provide all the info again (including proof of ID for parents) - the rules have also changed in that you have to have applied to register your childs birth with your local birth deaths and marriages before the baby bonus will be paid

hope you get your payment through quickly this time around - the child care rebate won't affect the processing time for your claim as child care benefit is automatically processed, where the baby bonus is manually applied to your record

hope that helps

[kungfubecca]

It sounds to me like they were just making excuses. The first time round the bonus was still pretty new wasn't it??

Maybe they just didn't have the process down pat. I hope that's the case anyway, I'll be in trouble if they take that long for me.

It is rather poor that they can take that long for you and 3 days for others.

We did the forms at medicare last friday, 'cause we needed the new medicare card asap, and the bonus was in my account today. it took exactly 1 week

[sportychick]

I filled the forms in on day 2 in hospital, DH posted them the next day and we had the payment before the end of week 2 - so it was pretty quick!

[Keira]

Hi ladies,

Quick question about the bonus, sorry to hijack! My baby girl is due in November and i was just wondering how much the bonus is now? I heard it's gone up to $5000 as of July 07 instead of the expected July 08? Is that correct? Thanks