From the beginning of next year, more than half of the elderly in Bulgaria will receive pensions below the new poverty line. According to government plans, the poverty line will be increased from the current BGN 526 to BGN 638 from January 1, 2025.
As of today, according to the National Institute of Social Sciences, 333,270 pensioners receive pensions below the minimum level (580.57 leva), while 394,587 people receive minimum pensions. Another 395,416 pensioners have incomes between 580 and 700 leva. The increase in the poverty level will affect the income of a significant number of citizens. This will expand the range of vulnerable groups that will be able to receive social assistance from the state, said Minister of Labor and Social Policy Ivaylo Ivanov at a meeting of the National Tripartite Cooperation Council. The new poverty line will be the basis for calculating social support for people with disabilities and social payments in accordance with the Law on Social Assistance. The poverty line also affects financial assistance under the Law on Child Protection and access to social old-age pensions.
Raising this threshold will strengthen social protection for those in need, which will allow more families to receive assistance. Minister Ivanov noted that this change will reduce the relative share of the poor population in the country by 2.3 percentage points, to 20.6%. An example of an increase in payments is assistance to people with a disability rate of over 90%, who receive various types of disability pensions. Their financial support will increase by 64 levs and will amount to 363.66 levs. In addition, the maximum amount of one-time assistance for vital needs will increase from 1,578 levs to 1,914 levs.
