site.btaParliamentary Social Committee Rejects Proposal that State Representatives on NSSI’s Supervisory Board Be Obliged to Support 11% Increase in Pensions

At its meeting on Monday, the Parliamentary Committee on Labour, Social and Demographic Policy did not adopt the draft decision on obliging the representatives appointed by the Council of Ministers to the Supervisory Board of the National Social Security Institute (NSSI) to support the update of pensions by 11%.

Deputy Labor and Social Policy Minister Lazar Lazarov pointed out that under current law, the only body that implements the State Social Insurance (SSI) budget is NSSI and this 11% update is contained in the provision of the 2024 State Social Insurance Budget Act. There is no action or statutory mechanism by which the funds enacted in the 2024 State Social Insurance Budget Act can be saved, diverted or stolen, he emphasized. The competent authority has taken its opinion on the proposal of the Minister of Labour and Social Policy to update pensions by 11%, Lazarov added.

NSSI Deputy Governor Vesela Karaivanova said that NSSI's actions regarding the preparation of materials reviewed by the NSSI Supervisory Board are standard every year. "I have written the circumstances that gave rise to adoption of the SSI budget for this year, and I have provided the statistical data as should be done," she explained.

Mid-May, NSSI’s Supervisory Board approved a pension increase of 11%.