The deputies in the Budget and Finance Committee of the National Assembly quarreled over the measures set out in the draft budget of the State Social Insurance (SSI) for 2026, reported by news.bg
During the debates on the first vote in the relevant committee, the leader of the People's Party and former Finance Minister Assen Vassilev stated that the People's Party will not support the SSI budget for 2026.
The new budget has not led to anything good. More money is being taken from workers, but they are not being given more rights, he criticized. And he gave an example that the maximum pension and all other rights such as payments at the 2025 levels have been frozen.
Assen Vassilev pointed out that another big problem in the budget is that there will be an increase in social security contributions in the coming years. "You have not given up on your intention to raise the tax and social security burden", he pointed out.
Vassilev highlighted more problems in the budget - an upcoming roadmap for reform in the pension system, which no one has seen yet.
"It has become heated, you decided to back down a bit and leave the scandalous policies for the coming years. "This is not okay," the former finance minister was categorical.
Martin Dimitrov said that the PP-DB will vote "against" both the NHIF budgets and the state budget.
He asked the ruling party what measures they have for better revenue collection in the budget. Dimitrov insisted that Social Minister Borislav Gutsanov explain how he will implement the reform in the TELKs. "Which reforms have you implemented, colleagues?", the MP addressed the government.
Venko Sabrutev announced the three reasons why Budget 2026 should go in the trash - insurance, the maximum social security income and the broken link between contributions and rights, as well as that Bulgaria's children do not appear in the budget.
Dimo Drenchev announced that "Vazrazhdane" will not support the new version of the budget either. Maria Ilieva stated that "Velichy" will also not support the budget for 2026.
Bogomil Manov, a member of the Fiscal Council, pointed out that there is a contradictory trend in the social security system.
The pace of increase in expenses is outpacing the pace of increase in revenue from contributions. This will have an impact on the tax and social security burden in the direction of increasing social security and taxes, Manov warned.
According to him, it is good to strengthen the existing differentiation in pension recipients - the minimum pension from July 1, 2026 is formed to be 347 euros, the average - 541 euros, and the maximum pension - 1,731 euros. From the maximum to the minimum pension, the possibilities for increasing the differentiation in the level of pensions are reduced. This is a problem that will intensify the negative trends in the pension system, Bogomil Manov pointed out.
According to him, a connection should be sought between contributions to financing the pension system and rights in terms of the size of pensions received.
He sees a problem in the budget as not removing social payments from the pension system. Bogomil Manov welcomes the increase in the contribution for the maintenance of children up to 2 years of age.
Maria Mincheva from the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) thanked the fact that the increase in pension insurance contributions was removed from the DOO budget.
Boyan Nikolaev stated that KRIB will support the budget. "Let's rejoice in what we have achieved and leave the revolution for next year", Nikolaev urged.
Asya Goneva from the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions announced that the trade union organization also supports the budget of the Public Service Commission in its current form. For her, achieving the horizontal income policy of 10% is important. For the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions, the reduction of the maximum social security income to 2,300 euros is not very positive, as its increase must be in accordance with the rules. No agreement was reached with employers on the minimum social security thresholds. Asya Goneva hopes that changes will also be adopted in the roadmap of the pension system.
The municipal councilor and chairman of the "Solidarity Bulgaria" Association Vanya Grigorova pointed out that there is no money for transportation, no money for salaries of medical staff.
With a 6.5 billion euro deficit in the NSSI funds, it is impossible not to pay attention to the sources of funds, Grigorova pointed out.