Bulgaria's National Social Insurance Institute is holding an emergency board meeting to hash out the 2026 state pension budget after unions and government types hammered out a compromise. The new plan ditches a two-percentage-point hike in pension contributions that was supposed to kick in, and the average retirement check is expected to hit 541 euros compared to 498 euros this year. The maximum insured income got bumped to 2,300 euros from the old 4,130 leva cap.
Self-employed people will have to use the new minimum wage of 620 euros as their baseline for insurance payments. Pensions are getting updated using the Swiss rule with somewhere between a 7 and 8 percent boost, and the minimum pension for old-age workers lands at 346 euros. Child-raising benefits are going up to 460 euros from 780 leva.
The whole budget is pulling in over 15 billion euros, with nearly half coming from transfers to cover the shortfall. Contribution increases are getting pushed back to 2027 and 2028 instead of happening right away, which is probably why everyone agreed to sign off on this version.
Self-employed people will have to use the new minimum wage of 620 euros as their baseline for insurance payments. Pensions are getting updated using the Swiss rule with somewhere between a 7 and 8 percent boost, and the minimum pension for old-age workers lands at 346 euros. Child-raising benefits are going up to 460 euros from 780 leva.
The whole budget is pulling in over 15 billion euros, with nearly half coming from transfers to cover the shortfall. Contribution increases are getting pushed back to 2027 and 2028 instead of happening right away, which is probably why everyone agreed to sign off on this version.
