Self-Employed

You can apply to claim your portable long service leave entitlement after you have built up a total of seven years of continuous service with LeavePlus. Service built up with any of our interstate partner Schemes can be used along with the service you have built up with LeavePlus.

You must claim your long service leave entitlement through the state or territory in which your most recent 55 days of service was recorded.

There is no portable long service leave entitlement available to claim from LeavePlus if your total record of continuous service is less than seven years.

Subcontractors often have more than one component to their entitlement by accruing service in two different ways; as well as having been self-employed, many have also accrued service as a worker.

Any Working Subcontractor component consists of a refund of the voluntary contributions you have made, together with the interest earned on what has been accrued.

For any entitlement accrued from a Worker Service component, you are paid according to your last recorded gross weekly wage as a Worker, adjusted to reflect any industry-wide pay rises that have occurred between the last recorded wage and you taking leave. If you still have payslips from your most recent construction role as an employee, you must provide these with your claim application. This part of the claim payment is classed as a taxable income, therefore tax will be withheld and you will be issued a payment summary detailing the amount of tax withheld in your claim.

For further information about how Worker Service entitlements are calculated click here.

You must submit your claim for Long Service Leave through the state in which your most recent service was recorded. If your last service was accrued in Victoria, then LeavePlus will be happy to process your claim.

The fastest method of claiming Long Service Leave is by applying online: If you have already set up your online access with LeavePlus, simply log in at the top of this page and then select Submit a Claim.

You must make sure you have scanned/email copies of your most recent three payslips from when you were last on wages (if available) ready to upload before you start your application.

1. Fill out the details requested in the online claim form.
   
2. Upload your pay slips at the end of your claim process.
3. And that’s it, you’re all done!

If you need to send pay slips to us separately, please email them to claims@leaveplus.com.au

Claims take on average two to four weeks to process, dependent on when your leave is due to commence.

You can set up your online access now with LeavePlus if you have already registered an email address against your LeavePlus registration number. Simply click Need a New Password at the top of this page.

If you need to register an email address with us, you can do this by calling LeavePlus  on 03 9664 7677 and we can set up your online access over the phone.

In the event that you are unable to submit a claim online please call us so we can email one to you to print out at home, or send one to you via post.

Approved long service leave payments will be directly credited to workers’ bank accounts. You need to provide your BSB number and account details on the application form, as well as your Tax File Number. If you have registered a valid email address against your LeavePlus account, we will email you when your claim has been approved with a prospective payment date.

If you are currently employed, LeavePlus will also notify your employer. Please note that you need the agreement of your current employer before taking any leave from work.

Your claim payment will be deposited to you in one transaction, subject to tax (calculated at a weekly equivalent, rather than on the whole amount).

You will also be posted a pay advice document around one to two weeks after receiving the funds to advise of the gross payment details and amounts of tax withheld etc.

Tax Free Threshold

When completing a long service leave claim application form, you must answer the Tax Free Threshold Section of the claim form by selecting either Yes or No.

If you have any enquiries in relation to whether you are eligible to claim the tax free threshold, please contact the Australian Taxation Office on 132861, your payroll officer, or a tax agent.

If you do not select either Yes or No, LeavePlus will process the claim on the basis that you selected No.

LeavePlus cannot provide advice on whether an individual is eligible to claim a tax free threshold.

Extending your leave

Long Service Leave payments are deposited to you in one transaction.

If your claim is still in process and has not yet been paid to you by LeavePlus , you can advise us of your request to extend your Long Service Leave claim via email at claims@leaveplus.com.au

If your claim has already been paid out to you, then you cannot extend that claim, as it is a completed transaction. You will need to submit a new claim to claim any further Long Service Leave.

If you have accrued the required amount of eligible continuous service (currently a minimum of seven years), you will have a Long Service Leave entitlement which you can claim whenever you like.

That entitlement will not cancel or expire: it is there until such a time as you either claim the Long Service Leave from us (even if you have left the industry), or you pass away. In the case of the latter, any remaining entitlements can be paid out to your estate in a death benefit claim.

If you have a break in service, and have accrued an eligible entitlement before the break, that Long Service Leave entitlement is still there for you to claim at your request, even if you leave the industry again.

The interstate reciprocal agreement means that if you work interstate, your time in the industry can still be counted towards long service leave. However, you must notify and register with the relevant long service leave scheme – contact details are located here.

It is also important that you notify LeavePlus so that our records note that you have long service leave credits elsewhere. Until you actually apply for long service leave, your record of service in the industry is kept separately in each State/Territory scheme. Please also notify interstate schemes and LeavePlus of any change of address.

Can I roll my interstate service together?

No. The record for any service accrued in a certain state can only be recorded with the state authority in which the work was performed i.e. LeavePlus can only keep record of your work done in Victoria – you cannot transfer any interstate record onto your record with us.

However, you can use all of your interstate service together, but only when you make a claim for LSL. Simply complete the interstate section of the claim form for your current host state, and any interstate entitlements can be paid out to you as part of your claim.

You can have breaks from recorded service for a maximum of up to four years. As long as your service record has gaps of no more than four years, you can build up on top of your previously accrued service credits as one continuous service record.

However, if you have a gap of more than four years, your previous service record will be made inactive and you will not be able to build up on top of what you already had, as the gap will be considered too large to be classed as continuous. Any eligible entitlements accrued from previous service blocks will still be claimable.

If you were a non-contributing subcontractor during a Break In Service period, you can provide LeavePlus with evidence that you were still in the industry at that time by sending us a copy of the taxable income page of your tax return for that year (showing your ABN, work type, and total financial income for that financial year). As long as this evidence shows you were contracting in Victoria during this time, with gaps of no more than four years between this evidence and your recorded service credits, then we can apply an Approved Break In Service to your account, whereby your service will be classed as one continuous block (provided the evidence is not prior to 1 Dec 1997).

Service as a subcontractor cannot be backdated – as contributions are optional for subcontractors, if you did not contribute at the time, you will have lost out on any possible service credits for that time.

If you have received a written diagnosis from a medical specialist that you have a terminal illness and have less than twelve months to live, a Payment in Lieu can be paid to you if you have not already qualified for a long service leave entitlement. The following conditions must be met for a subcontractor to submit an application:

• You have accrued at least 55 days of service with LeavePlus
• You have paid voluntary subcontractor contributions towards your long service leave
• Your last service was accrued no more than four years prior to the date of application

To apply for a Payment in Lieu please email claims@leaveplus.com.au – a claims consultant will provide a form which you must complete and return to LeavePlus along with a copy of the signed medical diagnosis of terminal illness.

For those who have a terminal illness but had already qualified for a long service leave entitlement, you can still apply for long service leave through the normal online process as a ‘Left Industry’ claim and no medical document will be required to process your application.

Workers are eligible to start receiving service credits from the starting date of their first employer or after the date coverage commenced for your trade within the construction industry. There are two different calculations, dependent on when your service was performed:

Any service accrued prior to 1 July 2002 is based on an accrual of 0.866 weeks of LSL per full year of accrued service (equivalent to 13 weeks after 15 years’ service).

Service accrued after 1 July 2002 is based on an accrual of 1.3 weeks of LSL per full year of accrued service (equivalent to 13 weeks after 10 years’ service).