sorry to be rude, but there are some serious flaws in some of the posts here!

ftb takes into account the WHOLE financial year - so all you've earned before baby is born as well as what you anticipate up to june 30

FTB is a family TAX benefit - it's not taxable. think of it like a part of your tax refund at the end of the year cos you have dependents but it's paid in installments instead of as a lump sum (unless you choose the lump sum option)

your income IS taken into account when calculating eligibility for baby bonus - it looks at what your estimated income in the six months immediately AFTER birth will be - if, with your partner, it's under 75k, you'll qualify. if not, you won't. the current amount for baby bonus is 407 and some odd cents per fortnight


FAO/C'link staff are taking a massive amount of extra calls as they are dealing with flood affected persons calling about federal grants. Every IVR and the website advise of this - the wait times are huge.

my suggestion - work out your income for the full year. work out when you're going on leave, work out when you'll return to work (if you will), plug it into the paid parental leave estimator on the c'link of FAO website. if you get a clear cut result for which will give you more cash in hand, fantastic - if you're still not sure, you may want to call for a bit more info - but, at a guess, i'd say you may be looking at not being able to easily get through to those call centre staff for at least a few more weeks. the average wait time at the moment is over 20 minutes, starting from the moment the lines open. people with payment affecting enquiries (reporting earnings etc) will take priority in call routing - if they don't get through, they don't get paid. general enquiries will be deemed to be lowest on the priority list kwim?