The Parental Tax Credit is not Paid Parental Leave
In 1999 the then National Government responded to the groundswell of public support for PPL with a parental tax credit (PTC) scheme that pays working families a means-tested maximum of $1200 over eight weeks.
The biggest beneficiaries of the PTC are the dwindling number of families where only the father works in paid employment and who do not lose mum’s income when the baby arrives. For this group the PTC is virtually a “baby bonus”. It is not paid maternity or paid parental leave.
In fact, a third of families who currently receive the PTC do not appear to experience any loss of income on the birth or adoption of a child as the mother was not receiving any income prior to this.
In an estimated 23 per cent of families that currently receive the PTC, the mother will be eligible for PPL from July 1 2002.
These people will be able to choose to access either PPL or the PTC, but not both. This enables them to select whichever scheme is most beneficial to them, but not both.
Around 20,000 working mothers will be eligible for PPL. A further 7000 low income working mums will be eligible for the PTC, plus another 5000 low income families where mum may not have been working.
