The number of children receiving child allowance has dropped by nearly 70,000 in a year and four months, with Professor Zdenko Babić warning that the income threshold fails to keep pace with inflation or wage growth.
In Croatia, nearly 70,000 children have fallen out of the child allowance system in a year and four months, and experts are increasingly calling for the introduction of a universal allowance of 100 euros for every child. Professor Zdenko Babić from the Department of Social Policy at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb told Večernji list that the same old story is repeating: the income threshold for child allowance is not being adjusted for inflation or wage growth.
"The same situation is repeating itself, with the income threshold for child allowance not being adjusted for inflation or wage growth, and this decline in the number of beneficiaries is likely a direct result of that fact. Therefore, it would be wise to introduce a universal child allowance of 100 euros for every child as soon as possible. In Poland, for instance, the universal child allowance for each child is already around 190 euros... so I hope the Ministry of Demography will soon come forward with a new proposal for child allowance, which has been announced for some time now," Babić said.
The numbers clearly show the trend. For June 2026, 122,000 beneficiaries received an average allowance of 53 euros for 254,950 children. By comparison, in March 2025, the allowance for February was received by 323,996 children, the highest number since the legislative changes in 2024. In July 2026, the allowance was paid for just under 255,000 children.
The continuous increase in the number of children receiving the allowance lasted from April 2024 to February 2025, when the allowance was paid for 324,000 children in March. Since then, with minor or major fluctuations, the number of recipients has fallen to its current level.
Parents and guardians of children are entitled to the allowance if their total household income per member does not exceed 618 euros per month in the previous calendar year. This means that a family of four with two children can qualify for the allowance if their total household income does not exceed 2,472 euros per month, which is just over one and a half times the average net salary.
The average net salary in May 2026, according to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, reached 1,552 euros. Since the threshold has not been changed despite significant inflation, an increasing number of children are falling out of the system. According to the 2021 census, there were 741,000 children and young people up to the age of 19 living in Croatia, meaning that less than a third of children receive the allowance, which ranges from 31 to 62 euros.
Most EU countries have a universal child allowance, while in the remaining ones, the amount of the allowance largely depends on parental income and the number of children. In Germany, the universal child allowance is 259 euros per month, while in Poland it is around 190 euros. Croatia, with amounts ranging from 31 to 62 euros, lags significantly behind.
Families with three or more children also receive a pro-natalist supplement of 66.36 euros for three children, or 132.72 euros per month for four or more children. There are approximately 34,000 such families in Croatia. In July, the supplement for three children was paid to 24,653 beneficiaries, and the supplement for four or more children to 9,369 beneficiaries.
