Freebirth - birth certificate lodgement and baby bonus questions

I got a phone call this afternoon in regards to Lucinda's birth certificate.
Because Lucinda was born at home unassisted by any medical staff we apparently now need to lodge stat decs. The BD&M lady did tell me they need one for the address that she was born at and also for her being born.

I'm just wondering what type of things we should have written on the stat dec? When it is sent out to us, will it have certain questions we will answer?

Also, I am yet to receive baby bonus even though we lodged online while I was still pregnant. I was told it could take up to 3 weeks to come through. Lucinda is 4 weeks old tomorrow. Could the delay be due to the birth certificate stuff or should that not matter as we have already lodged paperwork and we showed the blue book and other info we got from the midwives?

This is all very new and confusing to me. I hope someone out there can help :)
TIA.

Didn't a midwife turn up afterwards? Can't they sign off the birth? Have you seen any other medicos since? Maybe they can sign off. I mean, you have a baby - she came from somewhere :)

I'm surious about the stat dec about the place of birth. Would a utility bill do?

Otherwise see here for info on doing a stat dec.

ETA - I just reread you birth story. I'd talk to the hospital about getting someone there to sign off the birth.

Did you end up going to hospital for checks after her birth hun.. sorry i'm having a mental blank.
After DD1's birth the hospital still provided the normal documentation it just stated she was born before arrival and they filled everything else out, we didn't have to sign anything.

I wonder if it was something the hospital overlooked? I birthed at home, but still did the paperwork at the hospital. Maybe having an ambulance involved makes a difference (did you have an ambulance? Sorry I can't see, I'm on my phone).

We went to the hospital by ambulance afterwards and as far as I knew everything was signed off. We went home 3 hours later and were visited by midwives for 3 days. We lodged the birth certificate about a week or so after Lucinda was born. I have no idea why there is a problem to be honest.

ETA - Considering I also went through the ante natal clinic at the hospital right up until 2 weeks before she was born, surely they can also verify that I was indeed pregnant. Meh. I won't assume anything until I get the stat dec stuff and see what I can do.

Thanks so much everyone for your help.

A doc should have signed off the paperwork on the back page. Rather than having to do a stat dec, would it be easier to go back to hospital and get them to fill in the right paperwork?

Maybe they forgot some paperwork as there was definitely no where on the birth certificate form for a Dr to sign off on. I remember saying that to my DH and I couldn't remember if our other childrens forms were the same. I know that a midwife or Dr signed off on forms for centrelink but that's all.

i believe the birth register has to have specifics on it as to location of birth. given the hospital would have signed off saying baby was born, but their details (stamped etc) wouldn't have matched the location details, you would need to verify the address. if the stat dec paperwork arrives and doesn't say what they need from you, call BDM to verify what it is they want

as to the c'link side of things, it is generally about 3 weeks from lodging paperwork to payments starting, but given the volume of staff that were helping with flood and cyclone claim processing, there may be a delay in getting payment to you as they clear up the backlog of claims

Thanks BG. I kinda thought that would be the case but I wasn't sure that this whole birth certificate debacle wasn't the reason why it hasn't come through. I'm more than happy to wait it out.

I was just going over my discharge paperwork from the hospital. I at least have those things too which can only help. Fingers crossed everything gets resolved real soon :)

I had to sign a stat dec and so did DP. It said something along the lines; I, tanya, gave birth on this day at this time to a male baby with these people present.

I also got a letter from a Dr who could see from my records that I was indeed pg (I had only been there once), but if I couldn't get a letter from the clinic I was going to get one from the chiro I had seen in late pregnancy.

I got the baby bonus forms from CL but could only receive the bonus after I got the certificate of birth and that also goes for a medicare card.

I would have thought that because you were seen very soon after birth by paramedics and hospital staff it should have all been stamped by them and ready to go... I would have just went there and got them to do it for you... they would have you on their records.

xx

Thanks Tanya :). I didn't notice there were any problems with the birth certificate forms and the first I knew of it was when the woman from BD&M called, we lodged the forms 3 weeks ago and it has taken them this long to get to Lucinda's form and realise the issue. I actually remember thinking it was strange that there wasn't anything filled out from the hospital and told DH that really, anyone could get a hold of those forms and claim to have had a baby. The only thing we had that was stamped from the hospital were forms for Centrelink.
So now we're just waiting on the stat dec forms and DH will drop them in to the BD&M office. I honestly didn't think there would be a problem! lol. Damn hospitals!!! ;)

So, just to annoy me, the stat dec arrived today - missing the stat dec. There is a cover letter and a return envelope but not stat dec. So annoying!
AND... the cover letter says

:

---

As most births occur in hospital, records are available to confirm the information provided by a parent. Where a child is not born in a hospital, The Registry seeks confirmation from independent witnesses who saw the birth occur. You have informed me that the father was the only witness to the birth and that you and the child were then taken to the John Hunter Hospital by ambulance.

---

This has annoyed me so much. Surely they can get the information needed from either JHH or the ambulance service. 2 paramedics attended and clamped the cord and passed Rob the scissors so he could cut the cord. Although they didn't actually see her being born, surely the fact that I was sitting there in a mess with a baby on my chest still attached to the placenta is enough for them to at least know I had given birth?
This is all just very annoying!

You can print off Stat dec forms from the net (do a goole search) or get them from the cop shop.

They are idiots! As if you are just going to have some random person witness your birth! "Hey Honey, don't push until the mail man does his rounds, we'll invite him in and while he's here I'll get him to sign this stat dec." I mean CUMMON!

Just wanted to let you know that i rang CL the other day about PPL and they said it's taking around 28 days, sometimes longer due to floods but if u are in financial hardship after 28 days then they will chase it up. So annoying. I know CL is very busy atm but thats a pretty long waiting time. We are looking forward to the back pay though.
GL with getting all the other stuff sorted.

It's been 31 days today since we put the paperwork in. Most of my claim had been done online 2 months before Lucinda was born. With all 3 of our cars out of commission at the moment, that money most certainly would help right now :(

We have done our claim too. Don't know what the point was really. I'd ring them and start hassling.

I called them the other day and they told me that it was being worked on. I don't see what the point in doing it online is either, especially if you're already getting FTB. DH put all our paperwork in and he said he needed to fill forms out still.

if you are claiming paid parental leave, no matter how many other kids you are claiming for, there is additional info required

if you are only claiming baby bonus when you're already claiming FTB, there is NO POINT doing the online claim

the online claim doesn't speed up the post birth process one iota - all it does is allow you to provide the right info for a PPL claim in advance - can you imagine the pain it would be to have a new born, and be trying to find details of your employer (ABN etc) so that they can pay the PPL?

i will say that i haven't looked at the wording online to see if there is something that explains that - maybe something to feedback - but essentially the pre-birth claim is mostly for PPL - but it also allows first time parents to do their claim for Baby Bonus in advance.

when your proof of birth is received, it will still go in the pile and still be addressed at the same point it would be if you'd done your claim after birth - the only difference is that, if you do a PPL claim (or baby bonus, for first time parent) beforehand, if there is info missing, the letters can be sent out early so you're not further delayed after the birth of your baby

does that make sense?

Makes total sense BG :) Thanks. It is a shame I was told over the phone to start the process for baby bonus & FTB and that is why, up until now, I had been confused about the whole applying online thing.

So, I thought I would update.

I called on Monday to ask again when my payments should be starting as it had been 35 days since we lodged everything. The woman told me that we should be getting there and she put a note on my file to see why it was taking so long.

Yesterday I called again to find out what was going on. I was told I needed to go in to the office and fill out a form and lodge it as apparently we didn't do it. I was told that we lodged it somewhere totally different to where we did. I had to argue both of these points as we did fill in the forms and we did lodge them at Centrelink and not Medicare. Grrrr! That was a bit annoying. So, DH came home from work after finally getting the chance to get the Stat Dec signed in front of a JP - it is amazing how many JP's aren't available after 5:30pm on any given day! - and we went to Centrelink to sort out all that stuff.
What had happened was that the back of the form that is meant to be filled out by a midwife and stamped was filled out by a midwife who forgot to put her number (?) down and it also wasn't stamped with the hospital stamp (?). DH thankfully had the stat dec papers with him that Centrelink viewed and photocopied and made a note of. Apparently this should all be processed now in the coming few days.

What craziness!! lol. I'm glad it is all sorted. I am so glad I finally got someone on the phone from Centrelink that told me that there was a problem and to go in to the office. Everyone else just kept telling me that it was being worked on and it should be happening soon.
Now to FINALLY get the medicare card!

unfortunately, at a call centre level, we can't see if there are any "issues" with paperwork until the processing centre go to process the claim and they note it on your file. so all the staff you've spoken to previously would look at it, see claim in progress, and that's it. once the message was sent the other day that it was over the normal time frame, someone in processing would have looked, seen the issues with the form, and put it on your file. they would have sent a letter too - be prepared - it will probably arrive in the coming days!

Someone from Centrelink called me straight after I posted previously to let me know that everything is now sorted and I should be receiving baby bonus as of today and I will be backpaid FTB from Lucinda's date of birth. I'm just happy that it has gone through. The Medicare card has been the most important thing to me lately though. That will all be sorted this afternoon :)

yay!! glad it's been sorted for you now!

can't believe the hospital didn't fill out your forms properly - that's damn slack on their part!

So glad it has been sorted, Lisa :D

xx