High Administrative Court ruled on Monday that the Zagreb city authorities' amended decision on financial support to stay-at-home parents in the city is legal, and that therefore their allowance can be reduced as envisaged by the local authorities.

Last September, the Zagreb City Assembly decided to reduce the monthly allowance for stay-at-home parents from 65 per cent of the average gross monthly wage in the enterprise sector in Zagreb to the national minimum wage from 1 April 2023 and to 50 per cent of the minimum wage from 1 July 2023.

As of September this year, those parents whose youngest child has turned seven years old will no longer be eligible for this monthly financial aid.

The Council for the Evaluation of the Legality of General Acts, presided by Sanja Otocan, overruled the claims of the associations of parents that the decision to cut the allowances was not legal. With that, it withdrew the temporary measure of suspending the application of the decision.

Associations of  stay-at-home parents expressed dissatisfaction with such a decision, and announced that they would seek legal protection from the Constitutional Court.

“We are sorry that the court did not defend over 5,800 beneficiaries of the measure,” the head of the association In The Name Of The Family, Zeljka Markic, told reporters.