The beneficiary of the maternity and parental support rights is the child’s parent or an equivalent person.

All beneficiaries are divided into three categories, depending on their employment status.

Thus, an employed and self-employed beneficiary is one who:

1. Has the status of an insured person under the compulsory health and pension insurance on the basis of employment under regulations governing employment. This category includes the following persons:

• Employed persons, civil servants and employees, and persons employed on the territory of the Republic of Croatia who are equal to them according to a special regulation;

• Persons with a place of residence, or approved permanent residence, or long-term stay in the Republic of Croatia employed in another Member State or contracting state who do not have health insurance with the health insurance holder of that Member State or contracting state, or who are not compulsorily insured under the regulations of the country of work in the manner specified by European Union regulations or international agreements on social insurance.

2. Has the status of an insured person under the compulsory health and pension insurance on the basis of self-employment. This category includes the following persons:

• Persons who are engaged in the economic activity of crafts and equivalent activities on the territory of the Republic of Croatia;
• Persons who independently perform a professional activity in the form of a liberal profession;
• Persons who are engaged in agriculture and forestry as their sole or main occupation in the Republic of Croatia, if they are taxpayers of income tax or profit tax, and they are not insured on the basis of employment or as beneficiaries of pension rights;
• Persons engaged in agricultural activity as their sole or main occupation, who are entered in the register of agricultural family farms as a holder or a member of an agricultural family farm, and who are not insured on the basis of employment, or as beneficiaries of pension rights, or are a full-time student;
• religious officials for a religious community registered in the records of religious communities kept by the competent state authority, if they are not insured on the basis of employment.

The following persons are also considered to be employed parents:

• A parent who is elected or appointed to a permanent position in government bodies or local government units’ bodies, if they receive a salary for this work, and if they have the status of a person insured under compulsory health and pension insurance on that basis;
• A parent who is a member of the management board or an executive director of a company, a liquidator, or a manager in a cooperative, if they have the status of a person insured under compulsory health and pension insurance on that basis;
• A parent who is in vocational training without commencing employment, i.e., who is being trained for employment with the possibility of using active employment policy measures in accordance with a special regulation, and who has the status of a person insured under compulsory health and pension insurance on that basis;
• A parent who is a parent caretaker, or a caretaker pursuant to the act governing social welfare, and who has the recognized status of a person insured under compulsory health and pension insurance on that basis;
• A parent who is providing care and assistance to a Croatian war veteran from the Homeland War, and who has a recognized status of a person insured under compulsory health and pension insurance on that basis.

Unemployed beneficiaries, farmers who are not subject to income tax and profit tax, beneficiaries who earn other income and

Beneficiaries outside the work system – a pension beneficiary, a beneficiary of the right to occupational rehabilitation, a beneficiary of the right to a disability pension due to professional incapacity for work, a person unable to work, a full-time student in secondary education, a full-time student in higher education… and all other persons insured with the Croatian Health Insurance Institute (HZZO) who cannot exercise the right as an employed or self-employed parent, on the basis of other income, as an unemployed parent, farmer, etc.).