Claiming long service leave in the community services industry
Find out how to claim your long service leave entitlement if you work in the community services industry in NSW.
When you are entitled to long service leave
Eligible workers in NSW under the community services industry portable long service leave scheme (the scheme) are entitled to long service leave when they have 7 years of recognised service with one or more employers in the community services industry.
You will receive:
- approximately 6.1 weeks of portable long service leave after 7 years of service (2555 days), or 6 years with a foundation worker bonus
- another 0.8667 weeks of long service leave after each additional 365 days (one year) of recognised service.
Your leave entitlement is calculated based on your service credits and average pay rate, with leave needing to be taken in a minimum of 2-week blocks.
Service recorded interstate may be included when calculating your total entitlement for long service.
You can take long service leave within 6 months of being eligible. However, you can agree to extend this time with your employer for a maximum of 5 years. Your employer must notify Long Service Corporation (LSC) within 7 days of this agreement.
Leaving the industry and claiming recognised service
If you’ve permanently finished work in the community services industry and have accrued at least 5 years of recognised service under the scheme, you can apply for a pro rata payment.
When you make a claim for a pro rata payment based on leaving the industry:
- You can only make the claim after 10 weeks from the time you’ve permanently left the industry. You must not have recorded any additional service in that time.
- Your registration with the scheme will be cancelled.
- Any service you recorded interstate may be included when your total entitlement for long service is calculated.
- LSC may need to contact a current or previous employer to verify your information when we process a claim.
- Tax will be deducted from your payment at the appropriate marginal tax rate.
Claiming leave after working 10 years with one employer
If you're employed by one employer continuously for 10 years (traditional long service leave) you may be entitled to a long service leave benefit from them.
The portable scheme does not replace traditional long service leave, so if you are eligible for long service leave with your existing employer under the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (the 1955 Act), you should access your leave through that employer.
You cannot receive benefits from both your employer and LSC for the same period.
How a long service payment is calculated
Long service leave payment formula
The formula that we use to calculate the amount LSC pays to a worker for long service leave is:
- P = 0.8667 x (D ÷ 365) x R
P is the gross payment amount to the worker.
D is the days of service claimed.
R is the highest average ordinary rate of pay.
Calculating a payment using your average ordinary wage
To work out the average ordinary weekly wage for a long service leave payment (R in the above formula), we look at the amounts reported by your employer and calculate the following.
Your average ordinary weekly wage over:
- the 2 most recent quarters of service
- the 4 most recent quarters of service
- the 20 most recent quarters of service
- the 28 most recent quarters of service.
Of those 4 figures, the highest amount will be used to calculate the long service leave payment.
Claiming long service leave
The scheme started on 1 July 2025. Once you have accrued at least 7 years of recognised service (or 6 years if you are a foundation worker) you will be able to apply to LSC through the Worker Portal to take long service leave.
Before making your claim for long service you will need to arrange an agreed leave period (at least 2 weeks) with your employer.
After making your claim for long service:
- we will notify your employer of your application
- you must actually take the time off that you submitted a claim for.
You will only be paid for the number of weeks of leave you take off. LSC may need to contact a current or previous employer to verify information when we process a claim.
Tax will be deducted from your payment at the appropriate marginal tax rate.
Who pays you for your long service leave
If you apply to LSC to claim your portable long service leave and are eligible, we will pay you directly.
If you are eligible for long service leave under the 1955 Act or an enterprise agreement, your employer is responsible for paying it.
Claiming on behalf of a deceased worker
If you’re a personal representative of a deceased worker who has at least 5 years of recognised service with the scheme, you can make a claim on their behalf.