Number of Elderly People in Bulgaria Nearing Work Force

Ivan Neykov, former Minister of Labor and Social Policy and current Chair of the Balkan Institute for Labor and Social Policy, Photo by BGNES

Some 2.7 million-strong work force provides pensions to 2.2 million retired people.

The gap between these numbers is constantly narrowing, as the share of employed people is shrinking, experts Ivan Neykov and Mika Zaykova explained in an interview for Bulgarian NOVA TV.

Every time 100 people retire, 66 enter the labor market.

Freezing the increase of retirement age, which was decided upon by Parliament in November last year and immediately led to more people leaving work due to old age, as well as unemployment amounting to 400 000 people, have contributed to these statistics.

With more than 12% of people out of work, pension and social insurance systems are put into jeopardy, as the National Insurance Institute is running out of funds to make its payments and currently takes 50% of its money out of the Republican Budget, explained Ivan Neykov, who was also Minister of Labor and Social Policy in a February-May 1997 interim government.

He also quoted data from the World Bank, which shows that in a 30 to 40 years' time, 30% of retired people will not receive their pensions.

Minka Zaykova added that a "just" pension in Bulgaria should be equal to 70% of a person's income.

In 2013, however, minimum wage was BGN 310 (EUR 155) per month, and minimum pension reached BGN 149 (EUR 74.5).

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