The Registry of Welfare Benefits in the 2004-2007 period was envisaged as a relevant database concerning welfare benefits disbursed by public authorities in Croatia. For each benefit, the following data were recorded: title of the benefit, names of the bodies competent for proposing the regulations, records of beneficiaries and the disbursement of the benefit, the target group of beneficiaries, eligibility conditions, the amount of the benefit and the calculation method, the number of beneficiaries per year and the total benefits paid out each year. Each benefit is also classified according to two proposed classification criteria – classification according to coverage and a functional classification.
Accordingly, the Registry provides a detailed insight into the structure of benefits and enables the dynamics of their fiscal effect to be tracked over time, which assists in the planning of budgetary expenditures intended for social goals, and the formulation of effective government social policy.