Stay at home mums are given no support from the government

Ftb depends on income aswell as the number of children so it’s not just based on if the mums a stay at home mum. Partner may not get the 2weeks from the government but their workplace may entitle then to parental leave if they’ve been there long enough.

isn't parental leave through work, only if the company offers parental leave? I didn't think it was automatically entitled
For 1 I've been told 122k
For 2 I've been told 128k
It's a slight difference but still, the not getting 2 weeks has baffled me! Why working mums are entitled to have their husband support for 2 weeks while sahms aren't entitled to receive 2 weeks support from their partner also my poor partner doesn't get to enjoy his new baby 😢

Parental leave is usually up to the employer and set out in the job entitlements etc when accepting a job offer and that. The government paid parental leave is usually paid to the employer if the employer does not offer the leave then they pay it to the employee. Least back when I was working that’s how it was done and now they’ve changed it based on the mother working etc.

I wasn’t working with my last 2 kids and partner was eligible for the 2 weeks paid parental leave from the government as his workplace didn’t pay it, my other kids were 1&2 and we had the single income aswell as constantly in Melbourne for the pregnancy and knew they were coming early being twin pregnancy, we just planned everything out financially with what we did have coming in from his work. Was tough but it is manageable, they definitely have made things harder now by adding that it’s based on the mothers work etc. we’ll be up shit creek if we have a 5th

yeah it's definitely not ideal. It would be great if the government saw a sahm as a working parent. Our first was before the changes so I didn't know this was now a thing till today and baby is due in 2 weeks wahoo haha looks like I'll be managing 2 under 2 while my hubby goes back to work after a couple of days

Don’t over think it. I had 4 under 3 it’s been much easier then I expected, my older two have additional needs and although the care needs are high with the children and ones got a recognised disability we don’t get carer payment or anything they just assume my partners income will cover what we need etc so it’s a shame that they don’t consider circumstances like these with the paid parental leave stuff too

that's awful. It just makes me so angry because it feels like they try to push everyone back to work very quickly. I hope this won't affect our kids generations as I grew up with a sahm and most people I know did too and we are struggling to get by as is with 130k and only 1 child before baby comes along and we bought before the rise in interest rates and the difficulty it is now to get into the market

I think the dads leave just depends on his employer? I don’t work and my husband couldn’t have leave for our second child but that was because we hadn’t been permanent residents long enough and he also had not been with the employer for 1 year yet. If I had a baby now he could have two weeks paid leave. If your partner has both of those then he should be eligible, check his work contract. It’s nothing to do with whether you work or not.
FTB I’m not sure but I imagine it would stop. We get $142 fortnightly on 100k p/a with 2 kids

Because the father’s should be supporting the mother’s, not the government..

Being a SAHM is really up to the family to support. The government dosent support anyone to stay home and not work, not enough to actually be comfortable anyways. They would much rather both parents go back to work and kids be put into daycare. It's really up to the working parent to provide for the SAHP and if that's unaffordable going back to work is how you survive. Paid leave goes off if you both worked leading up to having the baby but his workplace should have its own paid parental leave in his contract that doesn't go through Centrelink. Most father's I know, including my partner just took some annual leave to be home for a week or two after baby was born.

SAHP don't receive the government PPL because they're already being supported (typically by partners and some by the government), I'd guess the government doesn't see they need more financial support.

Working parents receive it because they're stopping working for a period of time to support the younger stages of babies life, before returning back to work.

At least, that's my understanding of it.

I'm very lucky that my husbands work provides 4 week paternity leave, he then took 4 weeks annual leave and had the 2 weeks government PPL (because I work too).

My hubby gets about 100k and I get family tax a and b plus there is a new born payment that everyone gets for 13weeks as my hubby couldn’t get parental leave as I didn’t work and we have two foster kids so I have been a stay at home mum for almost 4 years now

he is a tradie and alot of trades unfortunately don't get paid parental leave as part of their contract. He never has! Even though he has been at this company for over a year now. How do you guys do it on 100k? We are on struggle street at 128k 🥲

I get that but what I don't understand is how come for him to get 2 weeks centrelink paid leave... I have to have worked? Like why does that affect his leave you know?
I get the paid parental leave of 20 something weeks and that we won't be eligible for that as I haven't worked but essentially what they are saying is the father only gets 2 weeks paid if the mother worked. That really doesn't make any sense to me.. working mother or not, the fathers shouldn't be penalised for it. They still pay taxes and work their butt off.

I would love some advice on how you do it!
We are okay living on 128k with 1 kid and we are expecting our 2nd soon. We can't save but we do get by. Not working wasn't my choice unfortunately but now no one will hire as I'm about to pop 🙃
I was told we are not eligible for the one off newborn payment. I will need to look into that more then! Thanks

Yeah that’s annoying, he will just have to use annual leave to be off with you for a bit then. We are honestly absolutely fine on 100….might be more like 115 now…we are renting and have two older cars. I save 1000 a month too..I’m happy to help you budget if you want to message me. It definitely takes some work& adjustments

We’re around 100k with 4 kids. You really need to look at your budget and see what you can scrap or adjust because it really is doable with what you’ve said your partner is bringing in.

A 122k per year salary is decent, alot of working people don't earn that much 🤷‍♀️ and there has to be a cut off at some point because they money given out has to come from somewhere. Perhaps look at reducing spendings etc.

can I ask what you pay for your mortgage/rent?
Perhaps it's our living expense as we pay around 800 a week for mortgage payment alone

we literally spend nothing! Like we go nowhere and do nothing. We get paid, pay mortgage, put money aside for bills and then the rest is used up on groceries. I will need to go over the budget again thanks

Your mortgage is likely the issue with current interest rates. Renting is pretty much the only option at the moment to have decent income but be a Sahm. We used to own but it made no sense to be paying thousands in interest when we could rent and me not work. We will buy again in the future when it makes more financial sense . (Rent is only 2080 per month)

I'm a single parent with NO other parent (or the govt) contributing and we are comfortably surviving on 75k. What can you scrap from your budget?

thats great! I kind of work it out like my partner is earning 128 which means we are earning 64k each. It's a little bit different and hard to compare the two! Perhaps it is our mortgage that's too much and insurances etc. I'll need to go over our budget again and like Anni said, it might be worth renting and saving to then get back into owners market again in the future when it's not thousands going towards interest a month

I definitely wouldn't go back to renting. The market won't get better. Perhaps downsizing? Remortgaging? And yes scrapping unnecessary insurances definitely can help!

You can do half half on your mortgage we did we did half fixed and half variable and we only pay about 425 a week and we have a storage shed and we have one income which is my husbands one and some weekends he will do handy man work