Everyone
Parental leave payments
Employees and self-employed people may be able to get parental leave payments while they are not working so they can care for a new child. Find out if you’re eligible for payments and how much you could get.
The parental leave payment is a weekly government-funded payment for eligible employees and self-employed people who are taking care of a new baby or a child under 6 years old. Parents whose baby has died before or after birth may also be eligible for parental leave payments.
If you’re eligible, you’ll get parental leave pay for a continuous period of 26 weeks (6 months) while you’re not working. If you go back to work before the 26 weeks are up, your parental leave payments will stop.
Make sure you apply in time to get parental leave payments. Find out more under ‘Applying for parental leave payments’.
Parental leave payments are separate to parental leave
Parental leave and parental leave payments are separate entitlements with different requirements and processes.
Parental leave payments are funded by the government and paid by Inland Revenue.
Parental leave is time off work to look after a new baby or child and is managed by your employer.
If you do not meet the requirements to take time off on parental leave – for example, if you’ve resigned or are self-employed — you might still be able to get parental leave payments from Inland Revenue as long as you:
- meet the work requirements, and
- stop working for the period you receive the payments.
Your employer’s obligations
When you apply for parental leave your employer must give you information about parental leave payments within 21 days. Employers can use this notice:
Notice for employees about tax payer funded leave entitlements [PDF, 462 KB]
Principal contractors do not have responsibilities to their sub-contractors around parental leave or parental leave payments.
You’ll get government-funded parental leave payments regardless of what your employment agreement or workplace policy says as long as you meet the work requirements.
Offering extra parental leave pay
Parental leave payments are paid by the government. Some employers provide extra parental leave payments, for example:
- top-up payments while you’re getting parental leave payments from Inland Revenue
- payments after your Inland Revenue parental leave payments finish
- a one-off payment when you return to work or after a specified period of time.
Check your employment agreement or workplace policy to find out if you get extra parental leave pay.
Who can get parental leave payments
Employees and self-employed people who are the primary carer of a child under 6 years old qualify for parental leave payments if they meet the work requirements.
Work requirements for employees
You qualify for parental leave payments if you:
- are the primary carer of a child under 6 years old , and
- have worked as an employee for an average of at least 10 hours each week over any 26 of the 52 weeks just before:
- your baby’s due date (if you or your partner are giving birth to the baby), or
- the first date you or your partner become primary carer (if you or your partner have not given birth to the baby, for example, you’re adopting a child).
If you’ve worked for more than 1 employer, you can add together the hours you’ve worked in each job to see if you qualify for parental leave payments.
You do not have to be working when you apply for parental leave payments. Your eligibility is based on how much you’ve worked over the 52-week period. As long as you’ve worked enough hours over at least 26 of the 52 weeks, you’ll qualify for payments.
If you’re considering resigning from your job, think about whether you have done enough hours to meet the work requirements.
Parental leave payments are only available while you’re not working. However, you can stay up to date with what’s happening at work by doing ‘Keeping-in-touch days’ (KIT days). There are restrictions on when you can use your KIT days and how many you can do before they stop your parental leave payments. Find out more:
If you would have normally been at work (for an hour or more) but were absent, you can still count this time towards work requirements if you were:
- on paid leave or holidays
- on leave without pay (other than parental leave) with your employer’s agreement
- entitled to an ACC payment during that time
- on volunteers’ leave
- pregnant and on primary carer leave before the baby’s due date (this does not include any primary carer leave taken in the last 6 months for a different child)
- absent for any other reason considered by a Labour Inspector to not disrupt your normal pattern of employment.
Work requirements for self-employed people
You qualify for parental leave payments if you:
- are the primary carer of a child under 6 years old, and
- have worked in self-employment for an average of at least 10 hours a week over any 26 of the 52 weeks just before:
- your baby’s due date (if you or your partner are giving birth to the baby), or
- the first date you or your partner become primary carer (if you or your partner have not given birth to the baby, for example, you’re adopting a child).
You do not have to be working when you apply for parental leave payments. Your eligibility is based on how much you’ve worked over the 52-week period. As long as you’ve worked enough hours over at least 26 of the 52 weeks, you’ll qualify for payments.
Parental leave payments are only available while you’re not working. However, as a self-employed person, you’ll still get your payments if you do occasional administrative duties, for example, signing off wages, or monthly account reconciliations and GST returns, as long as you’re not working regularly.
Income you receive during a parental leave payment period will not affect your entitlement if:
- it was earned before the parental leave payment period started, or
- it’s from work done by other people in the business.
You’re considered self-employed if you’ve been doing 1 or more of the following as a self-employed person:
- providing goods or services under a contract for services
- carrying on a business, including in partnership with another person
- working for a trust in a business carried on by the trust.
You can be doing more than 1 type of self-employed work to meet the work requirements, for example, gardening and beekeeping.
You can count time away from work towards the work requirements if you were:
- entitled to an ACC payment during that time
- on parental leave (temporarily not working because you were primary carer for another child) before the baby’s due date
- unable to work for any other reason considered by a Labour Inspector to not disrupt your normal pattern of self-employment.
Accident Compensation Act 2001 – ACC New Zealand(external link)
Parental leave payments for eligible employees
Your weekly parental leave payment as an eligible employee is the greater of your:
- ordinary weekly pay
- average weekly income
up to a maximum of $788.66 gross a week (‘gross ’means before tax or any deductions).
Inland Revenue work out your parental leave payments based on information they get from your employer. They will calculate your ordinary weekly pay (OWP) and average weekly income (AWI) to work out the weekly payment.
If you’ve been employed by more than 1 employer, your OWP or AWI is based on your combined income.
Employees: how we work out your paid parental leave entitlement – Inland Revenue(external link)
Ordinary weekly pay (OWP) is the amount you’re paid for an ordinary working week. For information about how OWP is calculated, visit
Average weekly income (AWI) is the weekly average of what you’ve earnt over the 52-week period just before:
- your baby’s due date or date of birth (if you or your partner are giving birth to the baby), or
- the first date you or your partner become primary carer (if you or your partner have not given birth to the baby, for example, you’re adopting a child).
To calculate AWI, Inland Revenue will:
- add up your gross weekly earnings for the 26 weeks in the 52-week period where you earned the most income
- divide this by 26.
The weeks do not have to be together. For example, some of the weeks where you’ve earned the most might be in April and May, some in July, and some in October. There just needs to be a total of 26 weeks’ income over the 52-week period.
Parental leave payments for eligible self-employed people
Your weekly parental leave payment as an eligible self-employed person is the greater of:
- your average weekly income
- the minimum parental leave payment for a self-employed person
up to a maximum of $788.66 gross a week (‘gross’ means before tax or any deductions).
The minimum parental leave payment for a self-employed person is currently $235.00 a week. This is equal to 10 hours of the minimum adult wage each week. This minimum payment is adjusted every year on 1 July to reflect the current minimum wage rate. If you’re self-employed, you’ll receive this amount if you make a loss or earn less than the minimum wage while working for at least 10 hours a week.
You can choose to calculate your average weekly income (AWI) over a 6-month or 12-month period. The period ends just before:
- your baby’s due date or date of birth (if you or your partner are giving birth to the baby), or
- the first date you or your partner became primary carer (if you or your partner have not given birth to the baby, for example, you’re adopting a child).
Over a 12-month period, AWI is total net income from self-employment over the 12 months divided by 52.
Over a 6-month period, AWI is total net income from self-employment over the 6 months divided by 26.
Net income is total (gross) income, less expenses, but before tax.
You do not have to include any weeks you did not work during the 6 or 12-month period in your AWI calculation if you were:
- getting weekly ACC compensation
- on parental leave before the baby’s due date, or
- unable to work for any other reason that is considered by a Labour Inspector to not disrupt your normal pattern of self-employment.
Example
Priya is self-employed and expecting a baby. Priya was on ACC and did not work for 3 weeks during the 6-month period before her baby’s due date. When she calculates her AWI, she divides her total net income by 23 instead of 26 because she does not need to include the 3 weeks when she was on ACC.
If you’re self-employed and an employee
If you’ve been self-employed and an employee, you cannot combine these hours to meet the work requirements for parental leave payments. You must meet the work requirements either as an employee or self-employed person.
For example, if you’ve worked for an average of 5 hours a week as an employee and 5 hours a week as a self-employed person, you will not qualify for parental leave payments.
If you’ve worked for an average of 10 hours a week as an employee and 10 hours a week as a self-employed person, you will qualify for parental leave payments as both a self-employed person and an employee. You can combine both incomes to work out how much your weekly payment will be. Your payment will be capped at the maximum amount.
Parental leave payments start date and end date
Payments start date
Once your payment period starts, you must stop working. This is usually the date you go on parental leave. For information about when you can start parental leave, visit:
If you keep working after your payment period starts, you’ll lose your entitlement to payments. This means you may need to stop work before you get your first payment.
Start date if you’re the birth mother
Your parental leave payments start on whichever is earliest:
- the date you go on parental leave, for example, if you’re starting your parental leave before the baby is due
- the date your baby is born.
Start date if you’re the birth mother’s spouse or partner
If you are the spouse or partner of the birth mother and she has transferred her payments to you, they will start on whichever is earliest:
- the date you go on parental leave, for example, if you’re starting your parental leave before the baby is due
- the date your baby is born.
Start date for other primary carers of a child under 6
If you’re taking permanent responsibility for a child under 6 years old and you’re not the birth mother or their spouse or partner (for example, if you have surrogacy arrangements), your parental leave payments generally start as soon as you become primary carer.
If a child comes into your care at short notice, you may be able to delay the date your payments start to after you become primary carer (for example, if you are unable to stop work straightaway). The date you choose to start your payments must be within a reasonable period of the child coming into your care. Read more under ‘Payments if a child comes into your care at short notice’.
Starting your payments after other paid leave
You can choose to delay the start date of your payments if you’re taking other paid leave first, for example annual holidays. Your parental leave payments will start the day after your other paid leave ends.
If you apply for parental leave payments before your baby is born, you can use the baby’s due date as the expected start date for payments.
If your baby is born before the due date or you go on parental leave before your baby is born, you’ll need to tell Inland Revenue so they can start your payments earlier.
If you’re not the birth mother (or their spouse or partner) and you know a baby is coming into your care permanently, you can also use the baby’s due date as the expected start date for parental leave payments. However, Inland Revenue will not start the payments until they have confirmed the baby is in your care.
If you apply for parental leave payments after your baby was born or child comes into your care, Inland Revenue will backdate the payments to the date your payment period started.
If you apply more than 26 weeks after the baby was born or the child came into your care, Inland Revenue will pay your parental leave payments in a lump sum.
Payments end date
Your payments stop on whichever is earliest:
- when you go back to work (this includes if you start a new job)
- 26 weeks after they started.
‘Keeping-in-touch days’ (KIT days) do not count as returning to work. However, there are restrictions on when you can use your KIT days and how many you can do before they stop your parental leave payments. Find out more:
Applying for parental leave payments
Apply for parental leave payments online through Inland Revenue.
Make sure you have all the information you need for your application. Find out what you’ll need, and how to apply:
Apply for paid parental leave – Inland Revenue(external link)
Miscarriage and stillbirth
You are not expected to return to work earlier than you planned if you sadly miscarry or your baby dies before or after birth. You are still entitled to 26 weeks of parental leave payments provided you:
- are eligible for parental leave payments
- have not transferred your payments
- have not returned to work since you gave birth, miscarried or started parental leave.
Parental leave payments cannot be transferred to a spouse or partner after a baby has died.
Parents may also be entitled to bereavement leave.
Whetūrangitia provide support and advice for parents and whānau who have lost a baby. For more information, visit:
Preterm baby payments
You may be able to get preterm baby payments if your baby is born before the end of 36 weeks’ gestation (before week 37 of the pregnancy). These payments are additional to parental leave payments.
You may be able to get preterm baby payments if:
- you’re caring for a baby who was born live before the end of 36 weeks’ gestation, and
- you’re eligible for parental leave payments.
Preterm baby payments are available for a continuous period of up to 13 weeks. They are paid at the same rate as the parental leave payment.
The preterm baby payment period can start from either:
- the date the baby is born, if you or your partner gave birth to the baby
- the date any other person becomes the primary carer for the baby.
The preterm baby payment period ends on whichever is earliest:
- the date that would have been the end of 36 weeks’ gestation
- the date the primary carer returns to work or stops being the primary carer (unless they gave birth to the baby — the birth mother will get preterm payments until the end of 36 weeks’ gestation whether or not she is the primary carer of the baby).
Preterm baby payments and parental leave payments
It’s not possible to get preterm baby payments and parental leave pay at the same time.
Usually, your parental leave payments start when your preterm payments end.
You can start your parental leave payments later than this, for example, if you’ve already agreed with your employer to go on parental leave at a later date. That means there’ll be a gap between your:
- preterm payments ending, and
- parental leave payments starting.
During this time, you can work if you want to. Your parental leave payments will then start on whichever is earliest:
- the date you go on parental leave
- the original date your baby was due.
If you’ve already started getting parental leave payments before your preterm baby was born, you’ll need to contact Inland Revenue to get your preterm payments instead. Your parental leave payments will:
- stop when the preterm baby payments start
- start again when the preterm payments end.
Applying for a preterm baby payment
Apply for preterm baby payments online through Inland Revenue:
Apply for paid parental leave – Inland Revenue(external link)
Payments if a child comes into your care at short notice
When a child comes into your care, you should stop working straightaway if you can. In some situations this may not be possible, for example, if a child comes into your care permanently at short notice and you need time to sort out your work and childcare arrangements. This could happen if you are the primary carer and:
- you’re the spouse or partner of the birth mother and the birth mother dies or is excluded from the child’s care, and the child is under 1 year old
- you take primary responsibility for a child under 6 years old, for example, through an arrangement like adoption, whāngai, or a Permanent Care agreement with Oranga Tamariki.
In this situation you can choose a date to stop work and start receiving parental leave payments after you become primary carer. The date you choose must be within a reasonable period of the date the child came into your care.
If the birth mother dies or is excluded from baby’s care, and had not applied or did not qualify for payments
If you’re the spouse or partner of the birth mother and have become primary carer because she died or is excluded from the child’s care, you can get payments and start them after you became primary carer as long as:
- you meet the work requirements
- the child is under 1 year old
- the birth mother did not apply for, or did not qualify for, parental leave payments, and
- you stop work within a reasonable period of the date the child came into your care.
If the primary carer dies or is excluded from child’s care and was eligible for payments
If you’re the spouse or partner of the original primary carer and they have died or been excluded from the child’s care, you can receive their payments and the entitlement to parental leave as long as:
- you meet the work requirements
- your spouse or partner had applied for parental leave, and
- they were eligible for payments.
This is called ‘succession’ and is treated like a transfer of payments.
Your payment period will start on whichever is later:
- the date you became sole guardian of the child
- the date your bereavement leave ends (if the birth mother, or your spouse or partner, died and you took bereavement leave).
If the birth mother dies and there is no one to transfer the payments to, the payments will be made to the birth mother’s estate (an ‘estate’ is a person’s assets after they have died).
Other situations
Parental leave payments are the same if more than 1 baby is born at the same time, like twins.
In situations like surrogacy and adoption where the baby is not staying in the birth mother’s care, both the birth mother and the primary carer are entitled to primary carer leave and parental leave payments as long as they’re eligible. The birth mother’s entitlements do not end when she hands over care of the baby, and she can continue to receive payments while taking time off work to recover from the pregnancy.
Parental leave payments are available for the next child as long as at least 6 months have passed since the end of the last parental leave payment period. This includes parental leave payments that had started before a stillbirth or miscarriage. There needs to be a 6-month gap between the end of those payments and the start of payments for another child.
Members of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) are generally treated as employees of the Chief of Defence Force so they can get parental leave payments. Their conditions of service set by the Defence Act 1990 are treated as their employment agreement.
Members of the NZDF should check their conditions of service or talk to their chain of command to confirm what payments they are entitled to.
If you’re working overseas, you may be eligible for parental leave payments if there is sufficient connection between the overseas work and New Zealand.
Each application is assessed individually. If you’re working overseas and want to get parental leave payments, you’ll need to apply online through Inland Revenue.
Apply for paid parental leave – Inland Revenue(external link)
Transferring parental leave payments
You can transfer all or some of your parental leave payments to your spouse or partner as long as you both meet the work requirements. For example, you could transfer some of your parental leave payments to your spouse or partner so you can both spend time with your new child or baby. They must:
- stop working
- have primary responsibility for the day-to-day care of the child (this means they must be the main person looking after the child)
- meet the work requirements for parental leave payments.
Your spouse or partner’s paid parental leave payment depends on the amount of income they earn. That means their payments could be different to yours.
The rules for transferring parental leave payments are not the same as the more flexible rules for sharing parental leave.
Payment period is continuous
Only 1 person can get parental leave payments at a time, so families need to decide who will take the payments first. The payments are paid for 1 continuous period of 26 weeks. For example, the birth mother might take the first 15 weeks of payments, and her partner might take the remaining 11 weeks. Each person can only have 1 period of payments — it’s not possible to transfer the payments back and forth.
Work requirements for transferring payments
If you transfer your parental leave payments to your partner or spouse, they must meet the work requirements independently.
Transferring payments if you’re giving birth
If you’re giving birth to the baby, you and your partner or spouse must have each worked for an average of at least 10 hours a week over any 26 of the 52 weeks before the baby’s due date. If you’re going to transfer your payments to your partner or spouse to take later, their eligibility for payments is based on the baby’s due date, not the date they plan to become primary carer.
Transferring payments if you’re not giving birth
If you’re not giving birth to the child, you and your partner or spouse must have worked for an average of at least 10 hours a week over any 26 of the 52 weeks before the first date either of you become primary carer. This means that if you’re taking the payments first and are going to transfer them to your spouse or partner to take later, their eligibility for the payments is based on the date you become primary carer, not the date the payments transfer over.
If your spouse or partner is taking the payments first and transferring them to you later, your eligibility for the payments is based on the date they become primary carer, not the date the payments transfer to you.
Transferring payments before they’ve started
If you transfer your payments before you start receiving them or the payment period starts, you can cancel the application to transfer. You’ll then receive the payments for the continuous period of 26 weeks. The payments will not transfer over.
Rich and Holly are parents of baby Riley. When Holly applied for parental leave payments, she also applied to transfer her payments to Rich after 12 weeks so that he could spend time with Riley, too.
Holly goes on paid parental leave 2 weeks before Riley is born to prepare for her arrival. After 10 weeks, Rich gets a promotion at work and they decide it would be best for Holly to stay home with Riley while Rich keeps working. Because Rich’s payments have not started, they can withdraw the transfer application.
Holly’s payments continue for the rest of the 26 weeks or until she goes back to work — whichever is earlier.
Transferring payments after they’ve started
If payments are transferred after the payment period starts, they cannot be transferred back.
If a partner needs to return to work early, the parental leave payments will end. Any further parental leave payments will be lost.
Jess and Ally are having a baby. They decide that Jess will take annual holidays to give birth to the baby and transfer all her parental leave payments to Ally.
Ally stops work and starts receiving payments the day their baby is born. 2 weeks later, she is asked to go back to work early to help with a big project. Jess is still on annual leave. Before Ally returns to work, she can transfer the remaining 24 weeks back to Jess because:
- Jess’ payments have not started, and
- Ally has not returned to work yet.
Jess cannot transfer the payments back to Ally because they can only have 1 period of payments each.
Jess’s payments will end after 24 weeks or when she returns to work — whichever is earliest.
Transfers if taking other leave first
If you’re transferring all your payments to your spouse or partner but you’re taking other paid leave before parental leave, you can delay their payments if they also take paid leave before their payments start.
If you’re transferring some of your payments, you can take paid leave and some of the payments first while your spouse or partner keeps working, then transfer the rest of the entitlement over.
If neither of you take paid leave before your payments start, you’ll get payments once the baby is born.
Ty and Aria are parents of baby Wiremu. Wiremu was born on 6 January. Aria and Ty both meet the work requirements for parental leave payments, and they decide to transfer the payments to Ty. Aria takes 4 weeks of annual holidays when Wiremu is born and will go back to work in February. Ty will look after Wiremu after that.
Ty wants to start getting parental leave payments after Aria has gone back to work. To do this they can decide that:
- Aria will finish her annual holidays on 2 February
- Aria will take 1 week of parental leave and parental leave pay between 3–9 February
- Ty will start parental leave payments on 10 February, the same day Aria returns to work. He will get 25 weeks of payments.
Or they can decide that:
- Aria and Ty will both take paid leave until 2 February
- Aria will return to work and Ty’s transferred parental leave payments will then start on 3 February.
When to apply for a transfer
If you want to transfer some of your parental leave payments, you can do this:
- when you apply for parental leave payments, or
- by completing a transfer request.
To transfer parental leave payments, go to:
Transfer your paid parental leave - Inland Revenue(external link)
What if I’m not eligible or entitled to payments?
Inland Revenue assess applications for parental leave payments.
If Inland Revenue find that you do not meet the requirements for parental leave payments and you’ve got questions about your application or why it was declined, contact Inland Revenue.
Contact us – Inland Revenue(external link)
If you do not agree with or are unhappy with Inland Revenue’s decision, you can apply to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) to review it. You must apply for a review within 12 months of the date you received Inland Revenue’s decision.
For information about applying to the ERA, visit:
If you’ve got a general query about parental leave payments, you can contact us.