site.btaGovernment Approves 2018 Public Social Insurance Budget Bill

Sofia, October 30 (BTA) - The Council of Ministers on Monday approved the 2018 Public Social Insurance Budget Bill and decided to move it to the National Assembly for definitive adoption into law. The bill proposes an increase of the monthly benefit for raising a child between one and two years of age from 340 to 380 leva.

As of January 1, the percentage for every year of contributory service factored into the pension formula will be raised from 1.126 to 1.169 per cent, which in absolute terms implies an increase by 3.8 per cent. As of the same date, the minimum monthly pension for contributory service and retirement age will go up to 207.60 leva, and the social pension for old age will become 125.58 leva.

The maximum monthly amount of one or more pensions received by the same person will remain at 35 per cent of the maximum contributory income, which means 910 leva in pension money. The average pension in 2018 is projected to reach 362.97 leva per month, which is about 20 leva (5.5 per cent) more than in 2017. The public social insurance budget in 2018 will have 9.454 billion leva for pensions, going up by 478.6 million leva compared with the amount projected for 2017.

As of January 1, the social insurance contribution towards a pension will be increased by 1 percentage point to 19.8 per cent (including 11.02 per cent at the expense of the employer and 8.78 per cent at the expense of the employee) for people born before January 1, 1960, and 14.8 per cent for people born after December 31, 1959.

Contributions towards welfare benefits other than a pension will remain unchanged. Thus, the contribution towards benefits for general illness and maternity will be 3.5 per cent, and the contribution towards an unemployment benefit will remain at 1 per cent. These will be split between the employer and the employee at a ratio of 60:40. The contribution towards benefits for occupational accident and occupational disease will remain at between 0.4 and 1.1 per cent and will come at the employer's expense.

The bill also proposes that the minimum daily rate of the unemployment benefit should increase from 7.20 leva to 9 leva as of January 1. The maximum rate will be 74.29 leva. The requirement for entitlement to receive unemployment benefits will change. The proposed new requirement is that a person should have been insured against unemployment for 12 of the last 18 months prior to the termination of the insurance.