Bulgarians are living richer. Hopefully this will not stop, because the indications from the new government are pointing the way in this direction. However, it is good to know that we will live as well as we work well. There is no way that things will fall from the sky. This was stated by Dimitar Manolov, president of the “Podkrepa” trade union, to BNT, quoted by novini.bg.
Dobrin Ivanov, executive director of AIKB, believes that when we talk about the poverty line, we should keep in mind that it is used primarily for access to social benefits: “When we compare, we should compare ourselves with ourselves in the past. The number of people with these benefits is decreasing, but not at the pace we would like. But a large part of these people are pensioners.“
Manolov emphasized: “There are certainly problems in the social assistance system. We should not look at how much a person cannot work, but how much he can.“
“Over 70% of the budget expenditures are for pension and insurance payments, social payments and salaries, that is, a low perimeter for action and policies is created. Removing social payments from the insurance system to the social one will restore justice. This is the reform we are expecting. The loopholes must be plugged, one of them is the disability system“, Ivanov added.
Manolov is categorical that the pension ceiling must be abolished: “The maximum pension is an invented value. The pension ceiling made sense when the tax system was progressive.“
Ivanov also said: “The pension ceiling was introduced because of several thousand pensions, which, due to the method of calculation, resulted in very large amounts.“
He also commented on Budget 2027: “The Ministry of Finance is working towards a 3% budget deficit, which is commendable because it means that we will be able to make a sufficiently good consolidation. The AIKB is preparing recommendations for the new budget and there we present our arguments that the Ministry of Finance should seek more accelerated budget consolidation and the goal should be a 2% deficit in 2027, a 1% deficit in 2028 and a balanced budget in 2029.“