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 person who gave birth, and they die or cannot have the child in their 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.

Choosing a start date

From 1 July 2025, you can choose a date to stop work and start receiving paid 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.

What is a reasonable period?

What is reasonable will depend on your circumstances, for example:

• how much notice you had before the child came into your care
• how much notice you needed to give your employer to take parental leave (some employers may accept less than the 14 days required by law)
• any other arrangements you needed to make.

When you apply for paid parental leave payments, you’ll be asked to provide information about this. Each application will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.