8,500 are the complaints to the Ombudsman only for the first six months of the year, out of 11,000 in total for 2025, said Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva in "The Day Begins with Georgi Lyubenov" on BNT.
The Ombudsman has the resources to change something, there is a great opportunity and there are also examples that the Ombudsman actually helps, Delcheva was categorical. People trust us, she added.
Velislav Delcheva, Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria: "Usually, people are most concerned about, as we tell them, consumer rights. These are the well-known high bills, the poor quality of services related to water, electricity, and heating. And they, I would say, are campaigning. Usually in the winter, complaints related to "Heating" and electricity increase. Now I expect in the summer we will see if we will not have any problems with water shortages again."
The problem is that the problems have been repeated for years, Delcheva explained: "This tells me that the state is failing to systematically solve the problems that citizens have. There is no strategic solution to these problems. I will immediately say about "Heating", the famous formula for building installations. This is a circle that cannot be broken for years. Citizens appeal this formula in court. Usually the next government slightly changes this formula, adopts a new one. This happened very recently with the caretaker government, which slightly changes the old formula. And things are repeated in the same way. There is no systematic solution to this problem. I don't want to mention water yet. For now, we have no increase in complaints. But last year we also raised the alarm. The problem continues to be that we lose 60-80% of our water."
In a large part of solving these systemic problems, the state bears the primary responsibility, which, however, must have some strategy, some direction in which to start doing this, and not just talk about it, the ombudsman added. Secondly, we, as citizens, also have the commitment, not to mention the responsibility, to comply with the rules.
Velislava Delcheva explained that she was in all parliamentary committees for the adoption of the 2026 budget. She explained that according to the institution of the Ombudsman, it is the most vulnerable groups that have been forgotten.
"The monthly benefits for children with disabilities have not been updated for three years. Although it may seem like a lot to some that 600 euros is enough, believe me, for these families 600 euros is absolutely not enough for anything. Because they pay for medications, aids, they need medications, rehabilitation, and so on. For mothers in the second year of motherhood, this has already been said, I am simply mentioning it. Speaking of aids, the NHIF budget also did not provide for an increase for people with disabilities for aids. Now there was an assurance in the Health Minister's committee that they are ready, if in the middle of the year it becomes clear that these funds are not enough, to increase it. But we say again, we must have a long-term vision in this direction.
Pensioners, who, as you know, despite the fact that their pension was increased, still remain below the poverty line. These are two different categories, but despite everything, how will you feel when you have worked for 40 years and the state tells you that you are even below the poverty line? That's right, yes. I see another problem. If we explain for months that the consumer basket during the week has risen by 1 euro or fallen by 1 euro, what kind of indexation do we expect? And we all feel that we are paying double at the same time. By what index will they increase our social security payments, and we for our salaries? Somehow I don't understand this."
According to the ombudsman, the issue of banning children under 16 from using social networks again brings us back to the issue of rules and trust.
"The upbringing of children is not the job of just one person. Bulgarians have said that a child is looked after by an entire village. And we cannot shift this responsibility only to parents or only to teachers or only to psychologists who work in schools. We are talking again about the fact that we as citizens, each individual citizen, must have the legal awareness, first of all, to abide by the rules and secondly, to do everything possible to pass these rules on to our children. Because if they are not at the center of state policy, what will we do in 10-20 years, when these are the people who govern us? And we have not taught them to abide by the rules now."