site.btaPensioners' Unions to Stage Protests over Modest Pension Increase in 2025 State Budget Bill

The United Pensioners' Unions (UPU) association Wednesday said that its members are organizing mass protests against the government’s 2025 State Budget Bill, which envisages a pension increase of only 5%. In a statement released to the media, UPU stressed that instead of the expected increase of 8 to 9%, PM Rosen Zhelyazkov’s cabinet intends to raise pensions by just 5% in 2025, which, UPU claims, violates the so-called Swiss rule – a law that ties pension increases to inflation and wage growth, and undermines the already low living standards of approximately 2 million Bulgarian pensioners.

According to the Swiss rule, pensions are adjusted annually by 50% of the previous year's inflation and 50% of the growth in the average contributory income.

Under the new formula, according to the Pensioners' Unions, the pension increase has been reduced by almost half.

UPU has declared that it will begin organizing mass protests across Bulgaria and is calling on Bulgarian pensioners in different regional centres to protest in front of the offices of regional administrations at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, February 20.

The displeased pensioners are reminding the government that the Swiss rule is a fundamental principle of the pension system, and any infringement upon the foundations of this system is not only a severe blow to the poorest sectors but also an illegal action that will be challenged in the Constitutional Court.

"While urging lawmakers to reject the government’s proposed budget for the Public Social Insurance’s [Pension] Fund, we also demand that they cancel the BGN 800 increase of their own salaries,” the United Pensioners' Unions press release further reads.