I prefer the lump sum personally, but that's us in our situation. If we have money filtering in, it gets frittered away with nothing to show for it. Which is why we also get the FTB as a lump sum at the end of the year too. I'm already a SAHM, so don't need to supplement a wage. I guess tho with it coming in instalments, it could be looked at as a source of income rather than a bonus, and could go towards DH taking more time off or something. Usually the bonus reimburses our savings tho, which got depleted preparing for the baby (well.. bub #1 more than #2).