site.btaGERB-UDF Propose Amendments to Labour and Social Insurance Legislation

The GERB-UDF parliamentary group proposes amendments to the Labour Code and the Social Insurance Code to curb the draining of unemployment benefit money and to expand the applicability of paternity leave entitlement for raising a child until 2 years of age. The two bills were moved by MPs Denitsa Sacheva, Iliana Zhekova, Galya Vasileva and Kostadin Angelov, the coalition's press office said on Thursday.

The draft amendments to the Social Insurance Code are aimed to make unemployment benefits for persons socially insured in Bulgaria commensurate to those awarded to Bulgarians who worked briefly in another EU member state. Over 26% of unemployment benefits paid out by Bulgaria's National Social Security Institute in 2023 were given to people who had spent a short time working abroad. Such benefits averaged BGN 1,365.74 per month, more than twice the average amount paid to people who had been socially insured only in Bulgaria. GERB-UDF propose that the benefits for Bulgarians who worked briefly in another EU member state should be based on their income over the last 24 months. This is expected to make things fairer and to prevent possible milking of the welfare system.

The bill to amend and supplement the Labour Code suggests that a father should be entitled to paternity leave for raising a child until 2 years of age if the mother, biological or adoptive, is deprived of parental rights. This will be added to the other situations defined in the effective law, which are, the mother has died or is seriously ill.