Nearly 15,800 pensioners in Bulgaria will be left with real income cuts from July 1, 2026, as their actually calculated amounts will exceed the frozen maximum ceiling of 1,738.40 euros, the National Social Security Institute reported, quoted by Telegraph.bg. Due to the lack of a regular state budget and the serious fiscal deficit, the government plans to maintain the current limit. This will lead to the paradox of people with high social security contributions receiving less than they are entitled to by law. Current legislation fixes the maximum amount of old-age pension at this level, and no one outside a narrow circle of senior government officials can receive more.
The number of elderly people limited by the ceiling will swell dramatically due to the upcoming general update of pensions by 7.8% under the Swiss rule from July 1. As of June 2026, the people receiving the maximum ceiling are exactly 9,195 people. After indexation, however, this group will almost double.
So far, the cabinet has not announced any intention to raise the limit with the draft regular budget for the year. The reason is the looming serious hole in the state treasury.
"The issue of increasing the maximum amount is a matter of government policy. What they are will become clear after the submission of the draft budget for 2026, which is expected to happen soon," the National Social Security Institute officially commented.
The maximum pension is voted on every year in the State Social Security budget. However, the regular financial framework has not yet been adopted, even though we are in the middle of the year, due to the political crisis at the end of 2025. The caretaker cabinet left the hot potato to the current regular government, and until the adoption of the new law, the so-called extension law is in effect. Experts remind that the ceiling has been frozen at this level since 2022, as the fiscal situation did not allow the government to allocate several million euros to raise it.
Unlike the maximum, the minimum pension for length of service and age will record organic growth. Since the regular budget was delayed, the National Assembly adopted urgent changes to the extension law, which raised the lowest threshold for old age from July to 347.51 euros compared to the previous 322.37 euros. The growth here is also exactly 7.8%.
However, this increase is proving to be extremely insufficient to pull Bulgarian pensioners out of the poverty trap. The official poverty line in Bulgaria for 2026 is set at 390.63 euros. As of June 2026, the number of people surviving on old age money and supplements below this threshold is an impressive 850,247 people. After the July indexation, the army of needy pensioners will decrease only slightly, with about 712,600 people remaining below the poverty threshold.
Insurance on a maximum income over the years does not guarantee reaching the ceiling at all, estimates show. The highest amounts are usually obtained by people with so-called converted insurance experience.
The profile of the National Social Security Institute shows that these are mainly former employees from the "Security" sector - police and military, as well as those working in difficult conditions such as miners, pilots and divers from the first and second categories of labor. The average recognized insurance experience of people with a pension ceiling is a record - 59 years and 6 months. However, only a third of this time is real work experience from the mass third category, while the rest is accumulated through the legal coefficients for the conversion of high-risk labor.