Baby Bonus

Gotta say I was glad to hear of the $3,000 baby bonus and family benefits coming in for new mums as I am sure most other families are.

The paper said the bonus applies from the 1st July 2004. I am due the first week of July so if I give birth early on say the 30th June do we miss out on the $3,000.

Does anyone know if this is right or understand the budget better than me???

Hey jo79, YES if you have your baby 30.06.04 you will not get your bonus. However if you have your baby 12.01 am on 01.07.04. you may be eligible. Do you know if this bonus is income or assest tested?? You might like to call Centrelink to find out or search their web site www.centrelink.gov.au just in case you and or your partner earn too much money to get this. However having said that you would have to remember that as the 01.07.04 is a new financial year so if you are not returning to work( and you finished work before 01.07.04) and only your partner will be working it will be only his wage you would have to worry about. Good luck!

i would love to know if this is correct or not. how come its gone up? just curious. when i was preggas and gave birth in 02 it was $800

i have found all these price cut/benefits hard to follow and dont know wether to bellieve or not......

The "Baby bonus" has risen to $3000.00 and family benefits are said to be going up approx. $50.00 a week.

If your bub is born on the 30th of June --- yep you do miss out (doesnt that suck)

What i am curious about is does the $500.00 bonus still apply at tax time or has this been riden off.....

i havent been intitled for the tax time benefit ($500) but having my bub due in September i would be intitled to this $3000.00.

Lets see and hope, i could really do with that bonus, my eldest starts school next year..... thats already costing a fortune....

If it is true, its a good advance

One thing I am sure of is that this bonus is not means tested.

A few people have told me I need to keep my legs crossed till at least July 1 but at the end of the day bub is going to arrive when he is ready. I guess if he decides to meet us earlier than 39 weeks we will just miss out on the 3K and that is all there is to it. As long as bub is healthy that is the main thing!

Hi i got the following info on the web, just typed in commonwealth budget 2004.

New benefit avail to all families regardless of income. It will incorporate the existing maternity allowance & the baby bonus,with existing recipients of the bb maintaining their entitlement under that program.

Hope this helps

All I can say is good on the govt. for finally recognising that us mum's could do with a little extra cash to bring our babies comfortably into this world! I am excited at the prospect of the $3000 dollars when my bub is born (due 30 July).

When I had my daughter December 2002, the $800 bonus was a plus... but $3000 will make things so much easier.

Good to see families being taken care of.

i got told today (i dont know how right it is...) but the baby bonus was only available for FIRST babies. how right is this??

narelle

I am near 100% sure the bonus applies to ALL babies born from July 1st 2004 (first, second, tenth). The bonus is not means tested either so EVERYONE receives the 3K no matter what they and their spouses earn.

My mum knows someone who is booked in for a c-section on the 28th June and she said she was going to ask if this can be moved to a few days later (so she gets the bonus) ... I doubt the hospital would do this or else they would be delivering A LOT of babies in the first week of July ... but I am sure they will be getting asked this question a lot. While it does sound a little selfish to want your child born a few days later for the sake of money, there IS a big difference between receiving $800 or 3K and this being an expensive time I can understand why women would ask the question if they were booked in for a c-section.

Anyone else heard of women in this predicament??

Hi Jo79,,,,,,

i was talking to centrelink today about my income change (as i work fulltime and got a pay rise)

i then talked to them about this bonus 3K and that does apply to all people having a child after the 1st..............

the lady that i spoke too then told me about another payment of $600.00 per financial year --- this applies to people that get the TAX benefit A......

so look into that one as well//////

Hi there,
My understanding is that people who have their babies this month (ie before July 1) will get their $800 plus be eligible to apply for the $500 at the end of every tax year for the first 5 years (if they are not already getting it for another child apparently you can only get that for one child per year) But after July 1 you just get your $3000 and that's it. I'm safe because my bub is not due till Nov.

I think that everyone who gets FTB part A will get a payment of $600 before the end of June...Per Child...Which makes $1800 for us. If that happens every year that will be a major bonus!!!

Do you all think I will make it too the 1st of July im due the 29th of this month it would suck if he was born on the 30th smile
ill be happy whenever he is born but $3000 would certainly help