Guaranteed Minimum Benefit Falls to 21% of Poverty Threshold
Last year, the guaranteed minimum benefit for a single person was €160, just a fifth of the amount that statistically marks the risk of poverty. The EU average is 56.3 percent.
Last year, the guaranteed minimum benefit for a single person was €160, just a fifth of the amount that statistically marks the risk of poverty. The EU average is 56.3 percent.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković regularly highlights the real growth of salaries and pensions in public appearances, but data on the standard of living for citizens who depend on state social assistance shows a completely opposite trend. Last year, the guaranteed minimum benefit (GMB) for a single person was €160 per month, while the poverty threshold reached €753 per month, or €9,034 annually. This means that state aid covered only 21.2 percent of the income considered necessary to avoid poverty.
When Plenković took power in 2016, social assistance for a single person reached 37.4 percent of the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. Since then, this share has been in constant decline: in 2022 it was 30.3 percent, in 2024 it was 24.3 percent, and last year it fell to the aforementioned 21.2 percent. At the same time, the number of GMB recipients halved, reaching 44,173 in 2024, according to data from the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy.
Despite the fact that budget spending has more than doubled and Croatia has been in economic growth for years, there was no money for stronger support for the most vulnerable. It is a paradox that the richer the state becomes and the closer it gets to the European Union average, the deeper its most vulnerable citizens sink below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold.
A comparison with the rest of the European Union further illustrates the scale of the problem. While in the EU, state social assistance on average covers 56.3 percent of the amount below which the at-risk-of-poverty threshold is set, Croatia's benefit of 21.2 percent places the country near the very bottom of the scale. Citizens receiving GMB are also entitled to coverage of electricity and gas costs, but the monetary amount itself is increasingly smaller relative to real living costs.
In June 2026, the European Commission also warned about the insufficient level of GMB in its report within the spring package of the European Semester, noting that the adequacy indicator of the minimum benefit in Croatia is among the lower ones in the Union. The Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities, Darijo Jurišić, also emphasized the seriousness of the situation in his report for last year.
"Although the GMB amount nominally increased from 2023 to 2025, a comparison with the at-risk-of-poverty threshold shows a deep and persistent gap. The increases in the benefit are not sufficient to cover real living costs, especially given that food and energy prices, categories that most affect the socially vulnerable, rose faster than the general inflation rate," Jurišić stated.
His report confirms what the numbers already clearly show: the nominal growth of the benefit does not keep pace with the rise in living costs, and the gap between what the state provides and what is needed to live above the poverty threshold is widening.
