Minister Gutsanov: Our national goal should be to deal with the demographic catastrophe

For next year (2026) we will do everything possible, as long as there are these options in the budget, for the second year maternity benefits to be raised to around the level of the minimum wage - 1,100 leva. We also want mothers to receive 75% of the maternity allowance when they return to work, not 50%, the Minister of Social Affairs also commented.

Снимка: БНТ

I was not consulted, and I don't see why, since I am currently the Minister of Labor and Social Policy and have nothing to do with the law enforcement agencies.

This was stated to the Bulgarian National Radio by the Minister of Social Affairs Borislav Gutsanov, who is also the Deputy Chairman of the BSP, in connection with the nomination by GERB-SDF of the head of the State Security Agency Plamen Tonchev as Chairman of the Commission for the Disclosure of Documents on Affiliation to the Former State Security, popularly known as the Commission on Files.

"These things do not depend on the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and there is no way it is related, I am talking about things that directly depend on me. "At the moment, this is my quality," he specified.
Our national goal should be to deal with the demographic catastrophe, the Minister of Social Affairs said and specified:

"For the next year (2026) we will do everything possible, as long as there are these options in the budget, to raise the second year's maternity allowance to around the level of the minimum wage - 1,100 leva. We also want mothers to receive not 50%, but 75% of the maternity allowance when they return to work. This way the economy is supported and they are not disqualified, and in this way more money enters the Budget. Our proposal will also be to increase child allowances for the first, second and third child.".
Borislav Gutsanov pointed out that the European programs "Home Care" and "Hot Lunch" are provided with funds to continue:

"The MLSP is on track not to lose a single leva under the PVP, which is nearly 1.3 billion leva. ... The food and basic products program will also continue, the procedures are currently underway. The products will be distributed in about two months. It was very delayed and I will launch an inspection to find out why it was like this, what the reasons were".

According to him, the state provides a lot of funds for training for qualification or requalification under social programs, but the effectiveness is very low:

"It will not continue in this way and the effectiveness must be increased".