The group of older persons eligible to receive a one-time financial allowance, intended to mitigate the effects of rising living costs, has been expanded. Until recently, this allowance was available only to pensioners receiving a pension (also) from the Croatian state budget.

This meant that socially vulnerable pensioners who are Croatian citizens living in Croatia but receive their pensions exclusively from abroad—regardless of how low those pensions might be—were not eligible for this support. Many pensioners in this situation contacted the Ombudswoman precisely because they were excluded from this measure. Most of them had earned their pensions in neighboring countries, pointing out the unfairness of such criteria.

Therefore, one of the recommendations in the Ombudswoman’s 2022 Annual Report was directed to the Government of the Republic of Croatia, calling for financial support also for pensioners at risk of poverty who receive their pensions from abroad. This would be in line with social justice as one of the fundamental values of the constitutional order, as well as the state’s obligation to ensure the right to assistance for the fulfillment of basic life needs for the disadvantaged, the helpless, and others who, due to unemployment or incapacity to work, are left without care.

In line with this recommendation, the Government has enabled this allowance also for pensioners who receive their pensions from countries with which Croatia has concluded an international social security agreement, as well as from countries applying the EU regulations on the coordination of social security systems. This allowance is expected to be paid by October 2023 at the latest.

Older persons are among the most socially vulnerable groups in society, which poses a significant threat to their human rights. One in three persons over the age of 65 is at risk of poverty, and among those living alone, this figure rises to one in two.

More about the protection of human rights and equality of older persons can be found in the Ombudswoman’s 2022 Annual Report, in the chapters “Rights of Older Persons” and “Discrimination on the Grounds of Age