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).