Stay-at-home mum slams Centrelink for refusing to pay her husband any parental leave for little-known reason
An Australian stay-at-home mother has accused the Albanian government of “discrimination” after discovering her husband is no longer eligible for paid parental leave – because she is not working.
In the past, Queensland mother-of-four Hope Gardner and her family have taken advantage of Centrelink’s Dad and Partner Pay program, which provided up to two weeks of pay for fathers and partners who were not working or taking time off work to pay for a new child to care for. .
But Dad and Partner Pay was replaced by the new paid parental leave scheme in July 2023, leaving her husband ineligible for payments because Mrs Gardner is not working.
The Gardners only discovered the problem when they went to apply last month – three weeks after the birth of their fourth child.
Ms. Gardner took to TikTok on Tuesday to vent her frustration: “Please help me make sense of this.
‘We, like me and my husband, are no longer eligible for parental leave payments, father and partner payments – any form of payment for time off when the boy comes, because I am not working.
“I haven’t worked for six years, I’ve been a stay-at-home mom and literally haven’t made any income or anything like that. My husband works full time.
Stay-at-home mother Hope Gardner, from Queensland, expressed her shock in a TikTok video this week when she learned her husband was not eligible for parental leave
The mother of four, who is expecting her fourth child in weeks, only discovered last month that they were not eligible for paid parental leave when they went to apply for it
‘The rules have now changed: because I am not working, he is no longer eligible for leave and does not receive any government support at all.
‘Isn’t this discrimination? I honestly don’t understand it.’
Some comments on the post were unsympathetic, with critics saying Ms Gardner’s family should not be entitled to the payments if she is a full-time mother.
“Well, paid parental leave is for working mothers who stop working,” said one.
‘Paid parental leave is intended to cover the costs of one parent who needs to take time off from work. If a parent is not working, lost wages do not need to be reimbursed,” wrote a second.
Ms Gardner said it was ‘unfair’ that Dad and Partner Pay had been quietly axed
But Ms Gardner told Daily Mail Australia people had “missed the point of what I said” and insisted it was “unfair” that Dad and Partner Pay had been quietly axed.
“I’ve known for six years that I don’t qualify for benefits and I don’t expect benefits for myself,” she says.
“I just wanted to say that it’s unfair that my husband is now ineligible just because I’m not working.
“It’s a shame that people didn’t understand what I was trying to say or that I didn’t convey it well enough.”