Mother’s leave shock because of bad advice

A mother-to-be was denied paid parental leave after acting on incorrect advice given to her by Inland Revenue (IRD) about switching from employment to self-employment in the months leading up to the birth.

She was incorrectly told by IRD she could leave her job, become selfemployed and still reach the parental leave payment threshold test.

She did so, only to be denied the paid leave by IRD and then again by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) when she took the matter further.

It was only when she filed a statement of problem with the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) that the decision was reversed and she was granted the leave.

The woman called IRD three times before her son’s birth in September

I consider it appropriate to . . . reverse the decision made by MBIE. ERA member Eleanor Robinson

2020. She told a staffer she had been a University of Waikato employee for 13 weeks and was about to become a self-employed contractor for a clinical psychologist. In two calls, which were recorded, she asked if that would affect her paid parental leave.

IRD said she could combine the two periods of work as both employed and as self-employed, to reach the parental leave payment threshold test, in which 26 weeks of work was required.

Based on this, she quit her university job and applied for leave on August 7, 2020.

An ERA decision stated that on receipt of the woman’s application, “the IRD wrote to her advising her that she did not qualify for paid parental leave because the test . . . did not allow her to combine her work from employment with her work as a selfemployed contractor”.

The woman asked MBIE to review the decision. It said she was given bad advice but it did not have “statutory discretion” to pay her. MBIE said she did not meet the threshold test.

In November 2020, the woman successfully sought a formal review of the decision by the ERA.

ERA member Eleanor Robinson said in her report that the woman “relied on incorrect advice provided by a government department”.

The woman “acted reasonably in relying on that advice . . . I consider it appropriate to exercise the authority’s discretion and to reverse the decision made by MBIE that [she] did not qualify for paid parental leave.”