Parenting Payment vs. baby bonus

When talking about having another baby we hadn;t really taken into account how it would affect us if we had twins. It's not ever really something that has crossed our minds as the only twins in the familty were a result of IVF. Well now we are trying to figure out how it's all going to work...

I'm just wondering, with the baby bonus it is paid per child right? Is the parenting payment per child too? I've looked at the online calculator but it doesn't seem to give you the option to choose multiples. I'm trying to work out my maternity leave (how long I want to take vs. how much we can afford me to take) and with twins obviously the costs will be doubled (including childcare when I want to go back to work).

we've got 2 older children who will both be in school by the time the twins come along so we'll fortunately not be paying childcare for them anymore, but we need to upgrade to a bigger car and will be looking at moving to a bigger house too.

I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment because we gave away all of our baby gear about 6 months ago (the only thing we still have is a change table and 1 cot mattress) and am trying to figure out how we will afford baby expenses (nappies, clothes, furniture and everything else) AND buying a bigger house and car.

Any advice you can give me is much appreciated. TIA

If twins were the case you can have paid parental leave for one child (unless maybe you can claim for both you and DP??), and baby bonus for the other.

Max for paid parental leave would be $484 per week (after tax). Then you have baby bonus which will be paid over 13 fortnightly payments.

Parenting payment is another thing entirely. This is a c/link benefit paid for the unemployed- in place of youth allowance or New Start allowance.

You can choose to take 12 months off (if you're entitled by your employer), in which case you would get 18 weeks paid parental leave + any paid maternity leave from employer, the baby bonus (if you had twins), then after the 18 weeks go onto Parenting Payment, returning to work after 12 months. Make sense???

As for baby gear- I seriously recommend shopping online. We picked up our cot, change table & a chest of drawers from All4Bubs (ebay) really cheaply. Just take it one step at a time I guess, it's all you can do!

Thanks for that info. I think I get it now.

So is the parenting payment the family assistance payment? Sorry, I've not been entitled to any of these for such a long time and it's all changed since I had my last child.

As for baby gear- I seriously recommend shopping online. We picked up our cot, change table & a chest of drawers from All4Bubs (ebay) really cheaply. Just take it one step at a time I guess, it's all you can do!

Thanks for the advice. With our first 2 we had just about everything new, which has all gone now =( but we always said that we regretted spending SO much money on things we could have got second hand or on sale. Def NOT doing the big fancy pram this time around (although will have to figure out if we want a stroller for twins or will use a baby bjorn carrier for 1 and a single stroller for the other. SOOOOO many things to consider!

We still have a long time to go so I'm sure we'll figure it out.

You will get the baby bonus and FTB for both babies. FTB depend on household income.
We are on a very tight budget and have managed the impact of twins quite well!
If your friends want to get you a baby gift and ask you what you want then don't be shy to let them know what you need eg: nappies, wipes, bibs, linen etc.
We got second hand cots from friends and picked up cheap mattresses. We kept the girls in the same cot till well over 6 mths when they ran out of room to share.
Get yyour friends to bag up any clothes that they were looking to get rid of and laybuy is fantastic for other incidental items.
I use cloth nappies for the twins and although there is an outlay to buy the nappies i find it more economical - we do use disposables for day care.
We have a very small 2 bedroom house so the girls share their room with any visitors that come and we have learned to manage the day to day routines and mess!!!!!! (girls are now 17 mths old and absolutly everywhere)
As for the pram i would highly recommend a double pram. I too thought of the idea of single pram and baby carrier. Don't know what i would have done without my pram. Again you can pick up cheap ones second hand. Register with the Australian Multiple Birth Association forum and create a wanted add for the things you might need, You will be supprised how many people out there will help by either giving away stuff or selling cheap.
Every multiple birth family knows the impact of having 2 babies at once and are usually more than willing to help in any way they can.
Where abouts are you?

If by some chance you little ones come early and need to stay in special care or you are put on bed rest in hospital you may also be entitiled to reinbusement from VPTAS - cant remember what all the letters stand for but basically they covered travell for me to and from hospital appointments (1hr each way for us), hotel accomodation for my husband when we had the girls and accomodation for me when i was discharded but the girls were not (in special care for 5 weeks).

Happy to help in any way i can. Cheers claire

WOW! thanks for all the advice! I think we'll def be under the 75K for 6 months because I will be taking my maternity leave at half pay so i can have longer off work with some sort of income. I don't think we earn that much anyway so it should be fine.

Furgus - You've really put it into perspective too (twins in a 2 bedroom house). We are in a 3 bedroom house which we bought about 2 years ago. The value has gone up heaps but compared to everything else around we would not really be able to afford a bigger place without having to put heaps more money into it. realistically we could put the boys in one room (we bought a bunk that splits in 2, which they currently have as separate beds, for the purpose that one day they would/might share a room). We would then have the other room for the bubs. We only have the 1 living/dining area which would be stressful at times, but we all have to make do right.

Our 2nd bub was born 11 weeks premmie due to placenta previa. He also had IUGR and loads of other complications but has turned out fine. He still has a few issues, being VERY small for his age, circulation issues, needs to see physio for legs and a few other things. I'm terrified it's going to happen again and this time it will be double the pain and frustration.

So good to read about the support groups and all of that.