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.
Partial loss of work capacity, exists when the work capacity of the insured person is reduced, and the insured person is able to perform the adjusted tasks requiring the same or similar level of education as their former task for at least 70% of working time, taking into consideration their age and health status, education and ability, but cannot undergo occupational rehabilitation and be trained for full time work on other tasks.
A total loss of work capacity exists when the insured person suffers the total loss of work capacity due to changes in their health condition that cannot be medically treated, compared to a healthy insured person with the same or similar level of education.
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 encompasses the number of full years from the date the insured person reached the age of 20 to the date the partial or complete loss of working capacity occurred. An insured person’s working life shall be calculated from the age of 23, if he or she completed, after the age of 20, an undergraduate university study or a specialist study (university-level qualifications obtained on the basis of previous regulations) and, respectively, an insured person’s working life from the age of 26, if he or she completed an undergraduate university study and a graduate university study, or an integrated undergraduate and graduate university study, or a specialist professional graduate study (university-level qualifications obtained on the basis of previous regulations).
The working life is shortened for the period in which the insured person:
- Underwent voluntary military training or compulsory military service,
- Was registered as an unemployed person with the competent employment service after termination of one insurance period until the commencement of the new insurance period.
Exceptionally, the right to disability pension is acquired by an insured person:
- Who suffered a total loss of work capacity before the age of 35, but this insured person completed an undergraduate or a specialist study (university-level qualifications obtained on the basis of previous regulations), if the insurance period lasted at least two years until the date of total loss of work capacity; the insured person who completed an undergraduate and graduate university study or integrated undergraduate and graduate university study or specialist professional graduate study (university-level qualifications obtained on the basis of previous regulations) and if the insurance period lasted one year until the date of the total loss of work capacity and if the total loss of work capacity was suffered during the insurance period or within one year after the termination of the insurance
- 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
The right to a temporary disability pension can be exercised by a disabled worker who used the possibility of occupational rehabilitation and has been retrained for other jobs, but remained unemployed for a long period after the completion of occupational rehabilitation.
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.
The right to this pension is acquired:
- If the period of unemployment lasted at least 5 years after completion of occupational rehabilitation and up to the 58 years of age, and
- Provided that an employment offer through the competent employment service is accepted without delay, or that an offered job is not rejected.
A disabled worker who completed occupational rehabilitation, initially continued working, but became unemployed subsequently, also has the aforementioned right.
A period of occasional work for a total duration of six months is not considered to be an interruption of unemployment.
Your right to a disability pension pursuant to international agreements on social insurance
If you were insured in one or more countries with which the Republic of Croatia applies bilateral agreements on social insurance, the procedure for obtaining the right to disability pension is initiated with the competent pension institution in the contracting state of last insurance, or the contracting state in which you have residence. An application submitted in one contracting state shall be deemed as an application submitted in all contracting states in which you have completed your insurance periods.
When you submit an application for disability pension in one contracting state, the pension insurance holder of that state will take into account the insurance periods or residence periods in other contracting states if this is necessary for the recognition of the right to a disability pension.
Each contracting state applies its national regulations when determining the degree of disability. Medical assessment for persons who reside abroad is initiated on the basis of medical documentation submitted by a foreign pension and disability insurance holder. Based on complete and high quality medical analysis of the foreign expert and confidence in his work and the submitted medical documentation, an authorized expert in the Republic of Croatia will provide a finding and opinion for the purposes of Croatian pension insurance without the immediate examination of the applicant.
In proceedings for obtaining the right to a disability pension through the application of bilateral agreements on social insurance, the finding and opinion of a foreign expert is not binding on the holder of the pension insurance of other contracting state in respect of disablement determination. Authorised experts of each pension insurance holder make an independent assessment of the disability of insured persons and apply legal and medical definition of disability in accordance with their own legislation.
Disability pension will be paid regardless of where you reside (in which Member State).
Besides the request specified above under 1.2. that can be found on the website of the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute under the forms section, certain forms must also be filled out with the requests for recognition of the right to a foreign pension (additional request form for the disability pension under 1.5.) for the following countries:
