The teams of the Social Assistance Agency are fully prepared to provide assistance to the victims of the floods from the day before in the Burgas region. We will ensure that people receive not only what they are entitled to by law as disaster assistance, but also additional funds. This was stated by the Minister of Labor and Social Policy Borislav Gutsanov. By law, in the event of a disaster, victims are entitled to assistance up to three times the poverty line or up to 1,914 leva. At the suggestion of Minister Gutsanov, after the water and fire disasters, the Council of Ministers accepted the possibility of additional assistance of 3,000 leva for people for whom the damaged property is the only residence and legally built.
„Tomorrow we will see what the funds are, but the preliminary information is that we will be able to collect these funds”, the minister added.
He noted that the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy is about to announce a new measure, financed with European funds, to assist municipalities in disaster prevention.
„We are awaiting approval in order to support the cleaning of dry ravines, rivers, riverbeds, afforestation, that is, to take preventive measures, and not after the problem arises, when we then wonder what happened happened“, said Gutsanov.
Before the meeting of the Supervisory Board of the National Social Security Institute, he also commented on Budget 2026.
“Social expenses and benefits for people are being preserved, so we cannot help but be satisfied. After a three-year freeze on maternity benefits for the second year, it is now planned to increase them from 780 leva to 900 leva“, he recalled. Another important step is being taken – the percentage of these funds that mothers receive if they return to work increases from 50 to 75 percent or 675 leva.
“In this way, we are taking, it may be a small, but step forward towards addressing the demographic crisis and for the second time, we are helping the real economy of the state“, explained Gutsanov.
The minimum wage is increasing as provided for by the law and from 1077 leva to 1213 or 620.20 euros. “In my opinion, this is the right decision and the right direction. We cannot have the lowest minimum wage in the entire European Union. The economy is not built with low wages, but with high added value“, said the Minister of Social Affairs. Gutsanov recalled that the Swiss rule is also being maintained, with which pensions will increase between 7 and 8 percent.