Online claiming of FTB and baby bonus 3 months ahead of exptected date????

hi there, was just wondering if anyone out there can shed some light on this..I got an info pack and rang centrelink and was told i can submit my claim online and when bubs is born all i need to do is provide proof of birth...SO i submitted it on the 5th oct as im going in for c section on 25th oct..thought it be handy for the girls in my due date group to know so i posted the info...only for one of them to come back and say she was told by centrelink that it only applies if bubs is due after 1st Jan...to me this seems silly becuase why would the system allow me to put in a claim if it were not the case....please can some tell me if i wasted my time and need to do a whole new claim after bubs is born..thanks

i haven't confirmed with training but i believe it onely came in on oct 1 that you could claim up to 3months before EDD - for both Paid Parental Leave and Baby Bonus

I had training in this yesterday and can tell you with 100% confidence that the girl in your date group was given incorrect information, unfortunately. Training for the changes to baby bonus and paid parental leave has only just been rolled out and many staff are yet to have the training. Claims for baby bonus and/or paid parental leave can be lodged up to 3 months prior to birth from the 1st of October.

eutra - so does that mean that we could claim baby bonus soon for our bubs thats due in Jan???

as long as it is less than 3 months til EDD, then yes, you can. all the info goes to fao, they chase up anything extra that is needed (ID, visas if not from Au initially, citizenship), the application will then stay there pending arrival of the proof of birth after baby arrives

if you claim paid parental leave for a bub due in January, and it is born early, you can change the claim to baby bonus as well

thanks hun

does that mean that i can do mine now do i just do it through my online thingy

J i haven't done the training, so i will admit to not knowing the exact process if you're claiming baby bonus for a subsequent kidlet when you already have one you're claiming ftb for. i am assuming you should be able to, but the information you will need to provide needs to be filled in on the baby bonus claim form anyway (like the six month estimate), so you're probably best to wait rather than double handling it. the current process is that, if you are ftb current, you don't need to do anything online - just fill in the form and send it off

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eutra - so does that mean that we could claim baby bonus soon for our bubs thats due in Jan???

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BG beat me to it - yes, you can claim for babies due after 01/01/2011 and supply all the documents now - once you provide proof of birth, the payments will start. If bubs is born prior to 01/01/2011, you can change from paid parental leave to baby bonus.

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J i haven't done the training, so i will admit to not knowing the exact process if you're claiming baby bonus for a subsequent kidlet when you already have one you're claiming ftb for. i am assuming you should be able to, but the information you will need to provide needs to be filled in on the baby bonus claim form anyway (like the six month estimate), so you're probably best to wait rather than double handling it. the current process is that, if you are ftb current, you don't need to do anything online - just fill in the form and send it off

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I agree with BG - the training wasn't that specific about this circumstance - you could always do the online claim now for baby bonus if you wanted to but I don't think it will really save you any time/hassles since you have to take in the Newborn medicare enrolment/midwives declaration form thingo anyway (FA101).