Disability pension

The following requirements must be met in order to qualify for a disability pension:

Partial or complete loss of working capacity
Years of service

Partial or complete loss of work capacity can result from non-work related injury or disease, injury or accident at work, or occupational disease.

A partial loss of working capacity occurs when the insured person, due to illness, injury outside work, injury at work or occupational disease, experiences permanent changes in health status that cannot be eliminated by treatment, due to which working capacity has decreased by more than half compared to a healthy insured person of the same or similar level of education, and given the health condition, age, education and ability, vocational rehabilitation cannot enable them to work full-time in other jobs, but they can work at least 70% of the full-time working hours in adapted jobs of the same or similar level of education that correspond to their previous jobs.

Total loss of working capacity occurs when the insured person suffers a permanent loss of working capacity due to permanent changes in health, without any remaining working capacity.

Disabled worker is an insured person who has acquired the right to a disability pension or the right to occupational rehabilitation based on reduced working capacity with the remaining working ability, or a partial or complete loss of working capacity.

Requirement regarding years of service

If the reduction of working capacity with the remaining working ability is the result of an accident at work or occupational disease, the insured person has the right to disability pension regardless of the length of qualifying periods (years of service) completed.

If partial or complete loss of working capacity occurred due to a non-work related injury or disease, and before the age of 65, an insured person acquires the right to disability pension provided that his or her qualifying periods (years of service) cover at least one third of his or her working life.

The working life shall encompass the number of full years from the date when the insured person reached the age of 20 to the date of partial or complete loss of working capacity. For an insured person who has completed an undergraduate university study programme or an undergraduate professional study programme or a professional short-cycle study programme after the age of 20, the working life shall start at the age of 23, and for an insured person who has completed a graduate university study programme or a graduate professional study programme or a university integrated undergraduate and graduate study programme, it shall start at the age of 26.

The working life shall be reduced for the period that the insured person:

spends on voluntary military training or compulsory military service,
spends in periods in which, until the occurrence of a decrease or loss of working capacity, they are registered as unemployed with the competent employment service.

As an exception, the following insured persons shall acquire the right to a disability pension:

An insured person who has experienced a complete loss of working capacity before reaching the age of 35, if they have completed at least two years of insurance period by the date of the occurrence of complete loss of working capacity, and if the complete loss of working capacity occurred during insurance or within one year after the termination of insurance,
An insured person who suffered a total loss of work capacity before the age of 30, if the insurance period lasted at least one year and if the total loss of work capacity was suffered during the insurance period or within one year after the termination of the insurance.

Temporary disability pension

A temporary disability pension may be acquired by a disabled worker who was trained through occupational rehabilitation to work for other jobs, but upon completing the rehabilitation remained unemployed for an extended period, if they were not provided with an appropriate job for which they had been trained through rehabilitation. The right to this pension is exercised if the unemployment lasted at least 5 years after the completion of occupational rehabilitation and up to the age of 58.

The aforementioned right is also granted to a disabled worker who completed occupational rehabilitation and initially continued to work, but became unemployed subsequently.

A period of occasional work for a total duration of six months is not considered to be an interruption of unemployment.

Your right to disability pension when you move within the European Union

According to the European Union (EU) legislation of Member States in terms of disability benefits, such legislations can be divided into two types:

States of “type A” legislation – according to this legislation, the amount of disability pension does not depend on the duration of the period of insurance or residence, but in order to exercise the right to a disability pension, the person must be insured in that particular state at the moment when invalidity occurred.
States of “type B” legislation – according to this legislation, the amount of disability pension depends on the duration of insurance or residence and is calculated according to the same rules as the old-age pension.

Disability pensions from Croatian insurance incurred due to disease or non-work related injury are classified as “type B” pensions.

When you submit an application for disability pension, the competent authority of the Member State will take into account the insurance periods or residence periods in another Member State if this is necessary for the recognition of the right to a disability pension.

Each Member State applies its national regulations when determining the degree of disability.

Disability pension will be paid regardless of where you reside (in which Member State).

Occupational rehabilitation

Occupational rehabilitation is a set of measures and activities in accordance with the regulations on occupational rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities, which are being carried out in order to enable the disabled person to work while preserving their remaining working capacities.

The right to occupational rehabilitation is compulsory if the insured person has a reduction of working capacity with the remaining working capacity before the age of 55, subject to the completed pensionable insurance for obtaining the right to a disability pension. Insured persons whose reduced working ability with the remaining working ability is due to an injury at work or occupational injury, are entitled to occupational rehabilitation regardless of the pensionable insurance.

The Institute for expert evaluation, occupational rehabilitation, and employment of persons with disabilities (ZOSI) must determine for the insured person the remaining working capacity for tasks other than those they have done until then.

Occupational rehabilitation of persons with disabilities is carried out by an occupational rehabilitation centre, and after the rehabilitation has been carried out, the Croatian Employment Service mediates in the employment of these persons.

Insured persons with recognised right to occupational rehabilitation are trained and employed according to the regulations governing the procedures for persons with disabilities.

The costs of occupational rehabilitation for insured persons are borne by the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute (hereinafter: the Institute) or are financed from the state budget, and such costs include the costs of training or education, transportation, accommodation, meals (in certain cases) and salary compensations.

During the period of professional rehabilitation, the disabled worker is entitled to salary compensation which cannot be lower than the lowest monthly gross salary payable to the worker for full-time employment, stipulated by the minimum wage allowance in the Republic of Croatia.

Control examination

In the procedure of supervision and control, the ministry in charge of the pension system may perform an extraordinary ex officio control examination for the rights determined on the basis of a reduction in working capacity with remaining working capacity, partial or complete loss of working capacity. An extraordinary control examination shall determine whether the finding and opinion on which the final decision on the right was based was lawfully made and correct. If the beneficiary does not respond to the extraordinary inspection, without justified reasons, the payment shall be suspended from the first day of the following month after the adoption of the decision to suspend the payment.

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. How can I exercise my rights and where?

The procedure for exercising the right is initiated by the chosen doctor of primary health care in case of employed persons, or persons with the status of insured persons. The complete medical documentation, in the prescribed scope and content, is prepared by the physician of the insured person which, together with his/her opinion, it is submitted to the Institute for the purpose of assessing the disability

The procedure may also be initiated at the request of the party, if the person is unemployed, i.e. if the person is not insured at the time of filing the application. Applications are submitted to the branch office of the Institute according to the place of permanent and temporary residence of the applicant, and if the applicant’s place of residence is located abroad, the regional service of last insurance is competent for this matter. In this case, in Croatia, the competent district service or the Office of the Institute, in whose area the applicant’s last insurances was, is competent to decide on the right.

An insured person is entitled to a disability pension from the date the partial or complete loss of working capacity occurred, but the right may also be exercised from a later date depending on the submitted application and the date on which loss of working capacity occurred.

2. Can I, as a beneficiary of a disability pension due to partial loss of working capacity (professional incapacity for work), acquire the right to an old-age pension?

A beneficiary of a disability pension due to partial loss of working capacity who, after acquiring this right, has completed at least one year of insurance period on the basis of continuing to work in another job according to the remaining reduced working capacity or has subsequently entered into insurance may acquire the right to an old-age pension if they meet other prescribed conditions.

However, the fact that a beneficiary of a disability pension due to partial loss of working capacity (professional incapacity for work) has reached the age requirement for acquiring the right to an old-age pension is not the basis for acquiring the right to an old-age pension.

3. Are disability pension beneficiaries due to their general incapacity to work converted to an old-age pension (ex officio), regardless of whether they qualify for that pension?

Beneficiaries of a disability pension due to a complete loss of working capacity, or due to a general incapacity for work due to illness, who have acquired the pension in accordance with general regulations, shall have this right ex officio transferred into an old-age pension in the same amount. It is not necessary for the beneficiaries of these pensions to meet the conditions for an old-age pension, but only to reach the age requirement in order for the pension to be transferred into an old-age pension. The old-age pension amount shall be equal to the disability pension amount which was determined on the day of the transfer.

4. What is reduced working capacity?

A partial loss of working capacity occurs when the insured person, due to illness, injury outside work, injury at work or occupational disease, experiences permanent changes in health status that cannot be eliminated by treatment, due to which working capacity has decreased by more than half compared to a healthy insured person of the same or similar level of education.

5. What kind of compensation can disabled workers have during occupational rehabilitation?

A partial loss of working capacity occurs when the insured person, due to illness, injury outside work, injury at work or occupational disease, experiences permanent changes in health status that cannot be eliminated by treatment, due to which working capacity has decreased by more than half compared to a healthy insured person of the same or similar level of education, and given the health condition, age, education and ability, occupational rehabilitation cannot enable them to work full-time in other jobs, but they can work at least 70% of the full-time working hours in adapted jobs of the same or similar level of education that correspond to their previous jobs.

Total loss of working capacity occurs when the insured person suffers a permanent loss of working capacity due to permanent changes in health, without any remaining working capacity.

6. What is a partial and what is a complete loss of working ability?

Partial loss of working ability exists when an insured person has a reduction in working ability, and the insured person may, depending on age, health, education, and ability, work on “adapted jobs” of the same or similar level of education that correspond to their past jobs, at least 70% of the time, and cannot be habilitated to work full time in other jobs with professional rehabilitation.

There is a complete loss of working ability when, compared to a healthy insured person of identical or similar education, due to changes in health that cannot be eliminated by treatment, a permanent loss of working ability without any remaining working ability occurs.