Unemployment insurance in Croatia

This chapter explains your benefits if you are unemployed. If you have lived or worked in Croatia or another EU country, the time spent working/in the self-employed activity will be the basis for calculating the entitlements you can claim as an unemployed person.

This chapter covers:

unemployment benefit (naknada za nezaposlenost).

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) and self-employed 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 and a self-employment activity must case with justified reasons.

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 ware 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).

Know your rights

You can find out about your legal rights at the links below.

Who do you need to contact?

Croatian Employment Service
Savska cesta 64
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia
Tel. +385 14595500, +385 800636363
https://www.hzz.hr/

Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy
Ulica grada Vukovara 78
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia
Tel. +385 16109300
https://mrosp.gov.hr/

This page was last updated in 2024.

Unemployment insurance in Europe →
Unemployment Insurance in Croatia

Key points of EU Unemployment Insurance coordination

Transferring periods of work and insurance between EEA countries As an EU citizen you can transfer acquired rights from Unemployment Insurance when moving between EU/EEA contries. In this way it may be easier to become entitled to unemployment benefit in the country you move to.
In the vast majority of the Member states the aggregation rule become fully applicable as soon as you starts to work in the country. However in Denmark, Belgium and Finland you must work some period there before you can use the aggregation rule.
You need a PD U1 document in the country you leave or if the involved countries use electronically exhange (EESSI) there will be issued a SED U002. The countries who issues the highest number of PD U1 documents are Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The countries who receives most PD U1 documents are Lithuania and Italy.
Transferring unemployment benefits Under certain conditions you can go to another EU country to look for work and continue to receive your unemployment benefits from the country where you became unemployed. The period you can export your unemployment benefits varies from 3 to 6 months in the different Member states.
You have to apply for a PD U2 document in the country you leave, or if you haven't done that the institution in the receiving country must request a SED U008 from the competent institution in your last country.
The countries who issues the highest number of PD U2 documents are Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark. Poland is the country who receives by far most PD U2 documents.
Unemployment benefits coverage According to OECD the net replacement of income after 2 months of unemployment, for a single person without children whose previous in-work earnings were 67% of the average wage varies from 33 percent (Ireland) to 91 percent (Belgium). Read more here..

Having residence in another EU country than where you work? According to EU social security coordination rules you must only be insured against unemployment in one country at a time. As a generel rule this country is where you work.
In Member states who have compulsory insurance, you will automatically be covered when you start working there.
However you may be insured by your country of residence if you are posted to a EU/EEA country or work in two or more EU/EEA countries at a time. In these situations you can not your self decide where to have unemployment Insurance, but you (or your employer) must apply for a PD A1 document which states in which country you are covered by social security, including Unemployment Insurance. Special rule also apply for cross-border workers ("frontier workers").
Third-country Nationals working in EU/EEANON-EEA citizens are covered by Unemployment Insurance in the EU countries who have compulsory Unemployment Insurance. In countries with voluntary Unemployment Insurance (Denmark, Sweden and Finland) third-country nationals can become member of an Unemployment Insurance Fund.
In the most countries Third-country nationals can also use the EU Coordination rules when moving within EU/EEA (however not in Denmark, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).
Third-country nationals in short-tem working relations often faces problems with actually get Unemployment benefits, even though they have contributed to the system. This is due to the fact that one normally need a residence permit which allow one to take any job, and also because of a qualifying period in most countries between 6-12 months.

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