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Unemployment benefits in Croatia

In what situation can I claim?

If you lose your job, you may claim a cash unemployment benefit. All workers (in the private and public sector) for whom an employer has paid employment contributions and self-employed people who have paid this contribution themselves are entitled to the benefit.

What conditions do I need to meet?

In order to receive this cash benefit, you must have worked for at least 9 months in the past 24 months when you became unemployed. To receive this entitlement in Croatia or another EU country, the time spent working in any other EU country, including Croatia, will be taken into account.

Your employment must not have been terminated through fault of your own or voluntarily.

However, if your employment was terminated by agreement, you are entitled to unemployment benefit if this was because your spouse moved or you had to move for health reasons. You can also receive unemployment benefit if you agreed to terminate your employment at the suggestion of your employer in the case of an employee surplus.

In order to claim unemployment benefit, you have to register with the Croatian Employment Service (HZZ) within 30 days of the date of termination of your employment contract/termination of self-employed activity and file an application for unemployment benefit.

If you were on sick leave, or on maternity, parental, adoptive parent or carer's parent leave when your employment contract was terminated or you stopped being self-employed, you must register with the HZZ within 30 days of the end of the respective leave.

If you are enrolled in education or vocational training programmes, at the referral of the HZZ, you are entitled to cash assistance. In addition, if you find a job outside your place of permanent residence, you are entitled to one-time cash assistance and reimbursement of travel and relocation expenses.

In order to keep your entitlements, you must regularly contact your employment advisor, be actively looking for work, and be available for work.

What am I entitled to and how can I claim?

Cash benefit

The amount of the cash benefit depends on the wage you received before your employment was terminated. It is calculated on the basis of the average gross wage you earned over the previous 3 months before your employment contract was terminated/or special insurance base in the previous 3 months, if you are a self-employed person.

For the first 90 days of unemployment, the benefit amounts to 60 %, and for the remaining period, it is 30 % of the calculation base. Both the minimum and maximum amounts of the cash benefit are prescribed.

You may claim unemployment benefit for a period of between 90 and 450 calendar days, depending on the total time you spent working (from 9 months to over 25 years).

An exception to the rule is unemployed people who have spent 32 years working and have no more than 5 years until they meet the age requirements for old-age pension (see the chapter Old-age pension). They are entitled to unemployment benefit until they gain new employment or entitlement to retirement.

Jargon busters

An unemployed person is a person capable or partially capable for work, who is between 15 and 65, not in the employment, active job seeker and is available for work (except if she/he has monthly receipt on the ground of service delivery, if they have a registered company, or are members of a cooperative, have a registered craft or perform similar activities)