Sorry to hear about your troubles Jodie. All the very best and I hope things improve for you and bubs stays in much longer.
I do have direct experience with this and basically there is nothing you can do!! PPP and any other payments take into account the prior 12 weeks income.The only thing you can do is ask for an advance on your FTB. They will do this for 1 payment only.
With DS2 I was the main income earner as DH was a student and worked at Bunnings 1 day a week!! I was put in hospital 4 weeks before he was born then he spent 5 weeks in hospital afterwards. As DH didn't accumulate leave being casual and my employer didn't pay mat leave, we were on a nil income for 9 weeks. We asked CL about the PPP (even Austudy... DH didn't get it even though he was a full time student because I worked but when I didn't we thought he would be eligible) but we were still rejected due to the 12 week thing.
This time round DS3 was in hospital for just short of 5 weeks and DH was on leave without pay after 3 because his holidays ran out. We had free accommodation this time (unlike when DS2 was in hospital) but were spending $24 a day on parking and $200 a week on petrol plus takeaway breakfast, lunch and dinner daily!! I asked Centrelink to rush through my baby bonus and it was noted as urgent in their system... but I am still waiting, DS is 7 weeks old. Care factor, ZERO!!
So anyway, like I said I do have experience with this and there is very little you can do. We have always had rainy day money on our mortgage and able to redraw so we were never without. I have no idea what others do that are not so fortunate.
Social workers at hospitals can be good but are very hesitant to assist with anything financial in my experience (parking vouchers etc) unless you have a health care card and are on full time benefits which they ask evidence of. They then want to know your life story etc... asking for a parking voucher (at our hospital it reduces it from $24 a day to $8) is like going for a job interview.
Good luck and I hope things improve for you. Sorry that was long.
Bek: 33
DH: (Rob) 32
Luca Adam: Natural birth in Jan 2006, 3.6kg & BF for 22 months!!
Elliot Robert: Emerg C/S in Dec 2008, 2.8kg & BF for 29 months!!
‎Isaac Benjamin: Emerg C/S in Dec 2011, 1.9kg (32+2) & BF for 5 mths + with early help from Mothers Milk Bank!! 