First Release

Year: LIX.
Zagreb, 28 February 2022
PSZ-2022-3-1

ISSN 1334-0557

SOCIAL PROTECTION IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA, 2020
(ESSPROS METHODOLOGY)

In 2020, the share of social protection in the GDP of the Republic of Croatia amounted to 24.3%, which represented an increase of 3.0 percentage points compared to 2019. The GDP in current prices decreased1) by approximately 33.9 billion kuna, while total social protection expenditures increased by approximately 4.3 billion kuna.

Concerning receipts, social contributions were the most frequent ones (55.5% of all social protection receipts in 2020). General government contributions followed with 40.2%.

Social protection benefits accounted for 98.3% of total social protection expenditures in 2020. By type of social benefits, those in cash were the most frequent ones (64.9%). By characteristics, non-means-tested social protection benefits (both in cash and in kind) were the most frequent ones (95.2%).

Comparing the data by social protection functions, the largest share of social benefits was spent on relieving the financial burden related to the Old age risk (34.7% of all social protection benefits), followed by the Sickness/Health care function (33.1%). The least resources were spent on the Housing function (0.0%).

Comparing the data on the share of costs for the social protection in the national GDP with the EU Member States, the Republic of Croatia fell behind the EU-27 average by 6.9 percentage points in 2019. Viewed by shares of social protection functions in GDP in 2019, the Old-age function fell behind the EU-27 average by 3.6 percentage points, the Sickness/Health care function by 1.0 percentage points, the Unemployment function by 0.6 percentage points, the Family/Children and Housing functions by 0.4 percentage points each and the Social exclusion function by 0.3 percentage points, while the Survivors function exceeded the EU-27 average by 0.1 percentage points. The Disability function remained at the same level.

Comparing the data on social protection expenditures per inhabitant with EU Member States, calculated in purchasing power standard (PPS), the Republic of Croatia fell behind the EU-27 average by 50% in 2019. According to this indicator, all social protection functions in the Republic of Croatia were below the EU average, and in absolute terms, the Old-age function fell behind the most.

1) The data on the gross domestic product used in this First Release have been taken over from the official web page of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics: https://www.dzs.hr/Hrv_Eng/Pokazatelji/MSI%20BRUTO%20DOMACI%20PROIZVOD.xlsx.

1 TOTAL SOCIAL PROTECTION EXPENDITURES AND EXPENDITURES ON SOCIAL PROTECTION BENEFITS, BY FUNCTION AND ESSPROS SCHEMES

Mln kuna

   2018 2019 2020
Total social protection expenditures 83 169,81) 87 523,91) 91 798,3
Total expenditures on social protection benefits, by function 81 731,51) 85 988,61) 90 194,5
Sickness/Health care 27 279,81) 28 988,21) 29 848,8
Disability 8 475,3 8 610,7 8 583,2
Old age 27 856,0 29 706,5 31 284,3
Survivors 6 948,1 7 095,6 7 194,7
Family/Children 7 475,3 7 875,7 8 270,7
Unemployment 2 420,5 2 384,4 3 754,7
Housing 64,2 76,4 18,92)3)
Social exclusion not elsewhere classified 1 212,3 1 251,2 1 239,1
Administrative costs 1 303,9 1 399,6 1 462,8
Other expenditures 134,4 135,7 141,0
By ESSPROS schemes      
Total expenditures on social protection benefits, by ESSPROS schemes 81 731,51) 85 988,61) 90 194,5
Job mediation and unemployment rights 1 440,7 1 348,9 2 734,1
Pension insurance, first pillar 39 246,6 40 898,2 42 150,3
Pension insurance, second pillar 5,2 50,9 121,8
Basic health insurance 23 471,01) 24 962,01) 26 229,0
Supplemental health insurance 1 811,3 1 867,6 1 580,9
Health protection at work 272,4 292,5 270,7
Employers’ social protection3) 4 258,7 4 497,0 4 592,6
Social welfare rights 2 995,1 3 137,0 3 296,0
Assistance in settling of housing costs 59,3 71,6 57,9
Assistance in settling of heating costs 40,7 28,6 29,2
Family benefits 2 858,7 2 949,8 3 046,8
Social welfare in City of Zagreb 1 500,9 1 602,1 1 658,74)
Rights of Croatian Homeland war defenders and members of their families 758,5 776,6 740,7
Rights of civilian victims disabled during war and members of their families 26,7 25,3 23,8
Rights of military personnel disabled during war or peace-time period and members of their families 59,1 52,0 46,7
Other social assistance at the local level3) 2 340,3 2 577,3 2 567,64)
Social protection provided by non-profit institutions3) 586,4 851,3 1 047,64)

1) Revised data.
2) In 2020, using a new data source, social benefits that refer to housing were split to the Housing function (just rent costs) and the Social exclusion function (utility costs).
3) Estimated data.
4) Since 2020, the financing of non-profit institutions by local units has been transferred from the ESSPROS schemes Other social assistance at the local level and Social welfare in City of Zagreb to the scheme Social protection provided by non-profit institutions. Such distribution was done to adjust to the new data sources and for better calculation of scheme receipts and expenditures.

Job mediation and unemployment rights

The increase in total expenditures in this scheme in 2020, as compared to 2019, was mainly caused by an increase in expenditures in the Unemployment function due to the payment of supports related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pension insurance, first pillar

The increase in total expenditures in this scheme in 2020, as compared to 2019, was mainly caused by an increase in expenditures in the Old age function due to the growth of the old-age and anticipated old-age pensions. The increase in expenditure was also recorded in the Survivors function due to the growth of survivors’ pensions.

Basic health insurance

The main reason for the increase in scheme expenditures in 2020, as compared to 2019, was an increase in expenditures on out-patient medical care. The increase was also recorded in medicine expenditures and salary compensation during sick-leave and maternity leave.

Social welfare

The main cause of the increase in the scheme expenditures in 2020, as compared to 2019, was the increase in expenditures in the Disability function that refer to personal disability benefit, parent caregiver’s benefit and assistance and care supplement.

Family benefits

The main cause of the increase in the scheme expenditures in 2020, as compared to 2019, was the increase in expenditures in the Family/Children function that refer to parental leave and other maternity and parental supports.

Social protection in City of Zagreb

The main cause of the increase in the scheme expenditures in 2020, as compared to 2019, was the increase in expenditures in the Family/Children function that refer to subsidy for stay-at-home parent and expenditure for pre-school education.

2 SHARE OF EACH FUNCTION IN TOTAL AMOUNT OF SOCIAL PROTECTION BENEFITS

%

   20181) 20191) 2020 EU-27 u 20192)
Total expenditures on social protection benefits 100,0 100,0 100,0 100,0
Sickness/Health care 33,4 33,7 33,1 29,5
Disability 10,4 10,0 9,5 7,6
Old age 34,1 34,5 34,7 40,2
Survivors 8,5 8,3 8,0 6,1
Family/Children 9,1 9,2 9,2 8,4
Unemployment 3,0 2,8 4,2 4,5
Housing 0,1 0,1 0,0 1,3
Social exclusion not elsewhere classified 1,5 1,5 1,4 2,3

1) Revised data.
2) Data for the EU-27 were taken over from the table Expenditure on social protection, available on Eurostat's official web page https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/social-protection/data/main-tables on 8 February 2022. Data for the Republic of Croatia, indicated in this table, have been revised in the meantime (revised data are used in this First Release) and they will be updated in accordance with the standard Eurostat’s procedure.

G-1 EXPENDITURES ON SOCIAL PROTECTION BENEFITS, BY FUNCTION

3 SHARE OF SOCIAL PROTECTION EXPENDITURES AND EXPENDITURES ON SOCIAL PROTECTION BENEFITS IN GDP

%

   20181) 20191) 2020 EU-27 u 20192)
Total social protection expenditures 21,3 21,2 24,3 28,1
Total expenditures on social protection benefits, by function 20,9 20,9 23,8 26,9
Sickness/Health care 7,0 7,0 7,9 8,0
Disability 2,2 2,1 2,3 2,1
Old age 7,1 7,2 8,3 10,8
Survivors 1,8 1,7 1,9 1,6
Family/Children 1,9 1,9 2,2 2,3
Unemployment 0,6 0,6 1,0 1,2
Housing 0,0 0,0 0,0 0,4
Social exclusion not elsewhere classified 0,3 0,3 0,3 0,6

1) Revised data.
2) Data for the EU-27 were taken over from the table Expenditure on social protection, available on Eurostat's official web page https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/social-protection/data/main-tables on 8 February 2022. Data for the Republic of Croatia, indicated in this table, have been revised in the meantime (revised data are used in this First Release) and they will be updated in accordance with the standard Eurostat’s procedure.

G-2 SHARE OF SOCIAL PROTECTION EXPENDITURES AND EXPENDITURES FOR SOCIAL PROTECTION BENEFITS IN GDP

4 SOCIAL PROTECTION EXPENDITURES AS SHARE OF GDP, EU-27 AND REPUBLIC OF CROATIA, 20191)

   Social protection expenditures as share of GDP
Croatia 21,2
EU-27 28,1
Ireland 13,6
Romania 15,3
Malta 15,4
Latvia 15,7
Estonia 16,3
Lithuania 16,5
Bulgaria 16,6
Hungary 16,6
Slovakia 17,9
Cyprus 18,7
Czech Republic 18,9
Poland 21,3
Luxembourg 21,6
Slovenia 22,2
Spain 24,1
Portugal 24,1
Greece 25,0
Sweden 27,8
Belgium 28,9
Netherlands 28,9
Italy 29,3
Austria 29,3
Finland 30,0
Germany 30,3
Denmark 31,3
France 33,6

1) Data for the EU-27 and individual EU Member States were taken over from the table Expenditure on social protection, available on Eurostat's official web page https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/social-protection/data/main-tables on 8 February 2022. Data for the Republic of Croatia, indicated in this table, have been revised in the meantime (revised data are used in this First Release) and they will be updated in accordance with the standard Eurostat’s procedure.

G-3 SHARE OF SOCIAL PROTECTION EXPENDITURES IN GDP, EU-27 AND REPUBLIC OF CROATIA, 2019

5 SOCIAL PROTECTION EXPENDITURES PER INHABITANT, CALCULATED IN PURCHASING POWER STANDARD (PPS), EU-27 AND REPUBLIC OF CROATIA, 20191)

Thousand PPS

   Social protection expenditures (PPS) PPS per inhabitant (EU-27 = 100)
Croatia 4,5 50
EU-27 9,1 100
Bulgaria 3,1 34
Latvia 3,5 38
Romania 3,6 40
Hungary 4,1 45
Slovakia 4,3 47
Estonia 4,4 48
Lithuania 4,5 50
Malta 4,8 53
Cyprus 5,2 58
Greece 5,3 58
Poland 5,4 60
Czech Republic 5,9 66
Portugal 6,0 66
Slovenia 6,1 67
Spain 6,8 74
Ireland 7,5 83
Italy 8,7 96
Sweden 10,3 113
Finland 10,6 117
Belgium 10,6 117
France 11,4 125
Austria 11,5 127
Netherlands 11,6 128
Germany 12,1 134
Denmark 12,2 135
Luxembourg 15,6 172

1) Data were taken over from Eurostat's official web page: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/social-protection/data/main-tables on 8 February 2022.

G-4 SOCIAL PROTECTION EXPENDITURES PER INHABITANT, CALCULATED IN PURCHASING POWER STANDARD, EU-27 AND REPUBLIC OF CROATIA, 2019

6 SOCIAL PROTECTION EXPENDITURES PER INHABITANT, EU-27 AND REPUBLIC OF CROATIA, BY SOCIAL PROTECTION FUNCTIONS, CALCULATED IN PURCHASING POWER STANDARD (PPS), 20191)

Thousand PPS

   Social protection expenditures per inhabitant in the Republic of Croatia (PPS) Social protection expenditures per inhabitant (PPS), EU-27
Total social protection expenditures 4,5 9,1
Total expenditures on social protection benefits 4,4 8,7
Sickness/Health care 1,5 2,6
Disability 0,4 0,7
Old age 1,5 3,5
Survivors 0,4 0,5
Family/Children 0,4 0,7
Unemployment 0,1 0,4
Housing 0,0 0,1
Social exclusion not elsewhere classified 0,1 0,2

1) Data were taken over from Eurostat's official web page http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/social-protection/data/main-tables on 8 February 2022.

G-5 SOCIAL PROTECTION EXPENDITURES PER INHABITANT, EU-27 AND REPUBLIC OF CROATIA, BY SOCIAL PROTECTION FUNCTIONS, CALCULATED IN PURCHASING POWER STANDARD (PPS), 2019

7 TOTAL NUMBER OF PENSION BENEFICIARIES, BY SOCIAL PROTECTION FUNCTIONS AND SEX

   2018 2019 2020
Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women
Total number of pension beneficiaries 1.236.258 566.071 670.187 1.241.111 570.961 670.150 1.241.085 571.746 669.339
Total number of pension beneficiaries in Disability function 138.253 115.886 22.367 126.739 107.145 19.594 116.612 99.414 17.198
Disability pension beneficiaries 1) 138.253 115.886 22.367 126.739 107.145 19.594 116.612 99.414 17.198
Total number of pension beneficiaries in Old age function 859.451 433.667 425.784 877.884 447.322 430.562 890.856 455.859 434.997
Old-age pension beneficiaries 2) 665.959 336.240 329.719 678.852 348.002 330.850 687.311 355.403 331.908
Anticipated old-age pension beneficiaries 193.492 97.427 96.065 199.032 99.320 99.712 203.545 100.456 103.089
Total number of pension beneficiaries in Survivors function 238.269 16.350 221.919 236.171 16.302 219.869 233.277 16.266 217.011
Survivors' pension beneficiaries 238.269 16.350 221.919 236.171 16.302 219.869 233.277 16.266 217.011
Total number of pension beneficiaries in Unemployment function 285 168 117 317 192 125 340 207 133
Beneficiaries of anticipated old-age pensions due to bankruptcy of beneficiary’s employer 285 168 117 317 192 125 340 207 133

1) Covering disability pension beneficiaries bellow the legal retirement age (65 years for men and 60 years for women, irrespective of the transitional period). Beneficiaries above the legal retirement age are presented in line with the ESSPROS methodology, under the item Old-age pension beneficiaries.
2) Including also disability pension beneficiaries above the legal retirement age (65 years for men and 60 years for women, irrespective of the transitional period).

G-6. PENSION BENEFICIARIES, BY TYPE OF PENSION

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY

Sources and methods of data collection

Data on social protection in the Republic of Croatia presented in this First Release are collected by gathering administrative data from reporting units.

Coverage and comparability

The ESSPROS is a harmonised system that serves as an instrument of the analysis and comparison of financial flows of the social protection. The objectives of the ESSPROS are to provide a comprehensive and coherent description of the social protection in the EU Member States and candidate states for the membership in the European Union, financing of social benefits, and to establish a system suitable for the international comparability and harmonisation with other statistics.

The ESSPROS consists of the Core System and two modules. The Core System consists of a stable, annually collected set of data on receipts and expenditures of the social protection, while modules provide additional sets of statistical information on particular forms of the social protection.

The Core System collects, at the annual basis, data on the social protection in gross amounts (that is, before the recipient of the social protection benefit pays for them any kind of taxes, contributions or other compulsory provisions).

For the Republic of Croatia, 17 active social protection schemes have been identified and included within the ESSPROS coverage:

Active schemes

  1. Job mediation and unemployment rights
  2. Pension insurance – first pillar
  3. Health insurance – basic
  4. Health insurance – supplemental (for the time being only the Croatian Health Insurance Fund)
  5. Family benefits
  6. Social welfare
  7. Assistance in settling of housing costs
  8. Assistance in settling of heating costs
  9. Social welfare in City of Zagreb
  10. Employers’ social protection
  11. Pension insurance – second pillar
  12. Rights of Croatian Homeland War defenders and members of their families
  13. Health protection at work
  14. Rights of civilian victims disabled during war and members of their families
  15. Rights of military personnel disabled during war or peacetime period and members of their families
  16. Other social assistance at the local level
  17. Social protection provided by non-profit institutions

ESSPROS Scheme 2 (General pension scheme – first pillar) encompasses all pension beneficiaries under special regulations.

The module on pension beneficiaries serves to collect information on pension beneficiaries and on characteristics of pensions.

Definitions and explanations

Social protection encompasses all interventions of public or private bodies intended to relieve households and individuals of the financial burden of the defined set of risks or needs, provided that there is neither a simultaneous reciprocal nor an individual arrangement involved (intervention where the recipient of social protection is obliged to provide simultaneously something of equivalent value in exchange).

Risks or needs expressed in the ESSPROS methodology as functions of the social protection scheme that require the social protection are listed below.

Sickness/Health care – the risk of sickness comprises the maintenance of the income and support in cash in connection with a physical or mental illness, excluding disability. The health care need covers maintenance, restoration or improvement of the health of the people protected, irrespective of the origin of the disorder.

Disability covers support in cash or kind (except health care) in connection with the inability of physically or mentally disabled people to engage in economic and social activities.

Old age includes income maintenance and support in cash or kind (except health care) in connection with old age.

Survivors imply income maintenance and support in cash or kind in connection with the death of a family member.

Family/Children include support in cash or kind (except health care) in connection with the costs of pregnancy, childbirth and adoption, bringing up children and caring for other family members.

Unemployment implies income maintenance and support in cash or kind in connection with unemployment.

Housing includes assistance in settling of housing costs.

Social exclusion not elsewhere classified covers benefits in cash or kind (except health care) specifically intended to combat social exclusion where it is not covered by one of the other functions.

The function of social protection refers to the primary purpose for which social protection is provided, irrespective of legislative or institutional provisions.

The observation unit is the social protection scheme. According to the definition, the social protection scheme is a distinct body of rules, supported by one or more institutional units, governing the provision of social protection benefits and their financing.

The expenditures of social protection schemes are the following: social benefits, administration costs, transfers to other schemes and other expenditure.

Social protection benefits, as the most extensive social protection expenditure, consist of transfers, in cash or in kind, by social protection schemes to households and individuals to relieve them of the burden of the defined set of risks or needs. Social benefits refer exclusively to cash payments, reimbursements and directly provided goods and services.

Administration costs are the costs charged to the scheme for management and administration thereof.

Transfers to other schemes are unrequited payments made to other social protection schemes.

Re-routed social contributions are payments that a social protection scheme makes to another scheme in order to maintain or accrue the rights of its protected people to social protection from the recipient scheme.

Other expenditure means miscellaneous expenditure by social protection schemes.

Receipts of social protection schemes are the following: social contributions, general government contributions, transfers from other schemes and other receipts.

Social contributions are the costs incurred by employers on behalf of their employees or by protected persons to secure entitlement to social benefits.

Employers' actual social contributions are payments made by employers to insurers to secure entitlement to social benefits for their employees, former employees and their dependents.

Employers' imputed social contributions are the costs incurred by employers by granting social benefits or by promising social benefits payable in future, to their employees, former employees and their dependents, without involving an autonomous insurer, and without maintaining segregated reserves for that purpose in their balance sheets.

Social contributions paid by protected persons are payments made by individuals and households to social protection schemes in order to obtain or keep the right to receive social benefits.

General government contributions are costs to general government of running government-controlled non-contributory schemes, and financial support provided by general government to other resident social protection schemes.

Transfers from other schemes mean unrequited payments received from other social protection schemes, which primarily includes social contributions re-routed from other schemes.

Other receipts include miscellaneous current receipts of social protection schemes.

Government payments to employers (including incentives related to the COVID-19 pandemic) are included in the ESSPROS survey coverage only in the following cases:

- the employer retains the employees for whom they receive incentives and whom they pay salary

- the employee for whom the incentive is requested does not work a part of the working time proportionate to the amount of the incentive.

Purchasing power standard (PPS) is an artificial common currency eliminating the effect of price level differences across countries. Theoretically, one PPS can buy the same amount of goods and services in each country.

Module on pension beneficiaries

Pension beneficiaries are defined as recipients of one or more periodic cash benefits of a social protection scheme falling within seven pension categories (disability pension; early retirement benefit due to reduced capacity to work; old-age pension; anticipated old-age pension; partial pension; survivors' pension; early retirement benefit due to labour market reasons), but person who receives more than one pension is counted only once – double counting is to be avoided.

 

Abbreviations  
bln billion
COVID-19 COrona VIrus Disease-19
ESSPROS European System of Integrated Social Protection Statistics
EU-27 European Union (27 Member States)
GDP gross domestic product
mln million
PPS purchasing power standard
   
Symbols  
0.0 value not zero but less than 0.05 of the unit of measure used

 

Published by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, Zagreb, Ilica 3, P. O. B. 80
Phone: (+385 1) 48 06 111
Press corner: press@dzs.hr

Persons responsible:
Dubravka Rogić Hadžalić, Director of Demographic and Social Statistics Directorate
Lidija Brković, Director General

Prepared by:
Sandro Jakopčević, Nataša Vucelić and Mario Vlajčević


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