What's the PPL work test?

You need to have worked at least 330 hours (about 1 day a week on average) over at least 295 days within the 13 months ending the day before your child is born or placed. No gap of more than 12 weeks between two consecutive work days. The rule replaced the older "10 of 13 months" test in 2023 — it's both more flexible and more precise.

Does casual work count?

Yes — any paid employment hours count, including casual, part-time, full-time, self-employed, and ABN contractor hours. What matters is that you can EVIDENCE the work (payslips, ABN income records, contract emails). Volunteer work, study, and unpaid carer work don't count even if it's structured like a job.

What about parental leave from your current job — does that count as work?

Paid employer-provided parental leave you've already taken for a previous child counts as work hours for the work test on the NEXT child. Unpaid leave doesn't. So if you had a baby in 2024, took 12 weeks paid mat leave then 6 months unpaid, and are now having a second baby, the paid 12 weeks counts toward the second child's work test.

Can I extend the work-test window if I have a long gap?

Yes — for medical reasons (your own pregnancy complications, a previous miscarriage, illness) the 13-month window can be extended back to 18 months, with the gap allowed to be larger. You apply for the extension as part of your claim. Services Australia is generally accommodating with medical documentation.

I'm self-employed — how do I prove my hours?

You demonstrate hours through business records — invoices, contracts, BAS lodgments, accounting records, time sheets if you keep them. Services Australia accepts reasonable evidence; you don't need a clocked-on register. If your business income is irregular (sole trader, seasonal), keep a calendar or diary showing the days you worked, even if the hours each day varied.

The PPL work test — 330 hours over 13 months, explained

Q: What's the 12-week gap rule?

Within your 13-month qualifying period, you can't have a gap of more than 12 weeks between two consecutive work days. A gap means literally "no paid work whatsoever for more than 12 weeks straight". This catches casuals with seasonal patterns, contractors between gigs, and parents who took unpaid leave or unemployment during the qualifying period.

To get PPL you need 330 qualifying work hours spread over at least 295 days in the 13 months before birth, with no gap longer than 12 weeks between two consecutive work days. The rule sounds simple but trips up parents with seasonal work, casual gigs, or short-term contracts.

The PPL work test is one of three eligibility tests (work, income, residency) and the one that catches casual, contract, and seasonal workers the most. 330 qualifying hours, 295+ days of span, no gap over 12 weeks sounds straightforward — but each piece has edge cases that change the answer.

This guide breaks down the test in detail.

The headline numbers

The work test asks: in the 13 months ending the day before your child's birth (or placement), did you:

Work at least 330 paid hours (~1 day a week average), AND
Spread those hours over at least 295 days (~10 months of the 13), AND
Have no gap longer than 12 weeks between two consecutive work days

All three must be true. You can pass the hours test (330+ hours) but fail the spread test if you crammed all the hours into 6 months. You can pass spread and hours but fail the gap test if you took a 4-month break in the middle.

What counts as "work"

Paid employment hours count, regardless of structure:

PAYG employment — full-time, part-time, casual, fixed-term contracts
Self-employment — sole trader hours running your own business
ABN contractor work — IT contractors, tradies on ABN, gig-economy workers (Uber, Airtasker if you can document hours)
Multiple jobs — sum across all jobs in the period
Paid employer parental leave from a previous child — counts as work hours for the next child's PPL claim

What DOESN'T count:

Volunteer work (even if structured like a job)
Study (even if it's PhD-level full-time)
Unpaid carer leave
Unpaid annual leave / unpaid LSL
Sick leave (unless paid by the employer)

The line is "paid for these hours" — that's the test.

The 12-week gap — most common fail

A gap means "no paid work whatsoever for more than 12 weeks straight". This is the single biggest trip-up:

Casual with seasonal pattern — e.g. hospitality worker who works heavy summer hours then nothing for 3-4 months. If the off-season exceeds 12 weeks, the qualifying period gets broken.
Contractor between gigs — IT contractor finishes a 6-month engagement, takes a 14-week break before the next one. That 14-week gap kills the work test even if total hours are way above 330.
Career break or sabbatical — anyone who took a 12+ week non-paid stretch in the 13 months ending at birth.
Unpaid maternity leave from a previous child — if you took 12+ weeks of unpaid leave in the 13 months before this new birth, the gap clock runs.

The fix for seasonal/casual workers: get something — anything paid — every 10 weeks or so to keep the gap clock reset. Even a single day's casual shift counts as a "work day" for gap purposes.

The medical-reasons extension

If you can't pass the standard 13-month test because of:

Your own pregnancy complications
A previous miscarriage
A serious illness
A previous PPL period within the window (so you took paid leave then can't requalify before this baby)

…you can apply to extend the qualifying period to 18 months. The 330-hour and 295-day thresholds stay the same; you just get more calendar time to meet them.

Documentation matters: medical certificates, prior PPL records, statutory declarations. Services Australia is generally accommodating with good documentation.

Special cases worth knowing

Casual workers with regular patterns

If you work 3 shifts a week consistently, even short ones, you're at ~150 paid days/year — well over the 295-day spread requirement and easily over 330 hours. The work test isn't designed to exclude casuals; it's designed to exclude people who haven't been working at all.

Self-employed with irregular invoicing

Sole traders, freelancers, and small business owners often invoice monthly or in chunks — making "work hours" harder to define. Services Australia's guidance: any day on which you performed paid work activity counts. Document with a simple calendar: which days did you do business work, even for an hour?

Multiple-job stackers

If you have two part-time jobs running in parallel, sum the hours across both. The "no gap" rule applies to the COMBINED pattern — a gap is only counted if you weren't working at either job.

Recently returned from overseas

Overseas work counts if you were an Australian resident for tax purposes during that period. If you've been off the country for an extended period (e.g. working in London for 18 months), the work test may have a gap that's hard to close.

Pre-birth check — am I going to pass?

Three quick checks:

Have I worked at least 330 paid hours since [13 months before due date]? — sum up payslips / ABN income records.
Are the work days spread across at least 295 of those days? — count distinct days you were paid for work.
Is there any 12+ week stretch where I wasn't paid for any work? — if yes, that's the test failure.

If you're unsure, the PPL Work Test Engine (paid tier) walks through the math from your saved employment history. The free PPL playground does a rough "did you work 10 of the last 13 months?" check — useful for a first pass but not authoritative.

How NestWise helps

The full PPL planner (/dashboard/parental-leave) takes your saved work pattern (hours/days/weeks per year, leave history, breaks) and runs the work test logic from lib/ppl-work-test.ts — the same engine that powers the admin verification runs. It flags edge cases:

"You have a 14-week gap in late 2025 — this might require the medical-reasons extension"
"You'd pass on hours but the 295-day spread is tight"
"If you can do 1 shift in October that's enough to close the gap"

Run the work test on your real data →