Poverty line in Bulgaria to become 504 BGN

The business sector approved the cabinet's proposal to make the poverty line 504 BGN, but the Trade Unions (KNSB) disagreed.

The National Council for Tripartite Cooperation discusses the draft poverty line and amendments to two regulations - on working hours, breaks and holidays, and on benefits and allowances from the state social insurance.

The poverty line in Bulgaria to be 504 BGN in 2023 instead of the current 413 BGN. This is what the government envisages.

In July the draft was uploaded for public discussion and even then KNSB announced that they disagreed with the draft and wanted the poverty line for next year to be 541 BGN. Their main argument is high inflation and energy poverty.

The Confederation of Labour “Podkrepa” is in favour of this size of the poverty line, but under a regular government they will demand a change of the methodology. The business sector endorsed the poverty line and determined the amount to be reasonable.

"The level of the official poverty line has increased by 22%. We consider that this increase fully covers the accumulated inflationary processes. The inflation rate for August 2022 compared to August 2021 is 17%. With this 22%, the growth of the poverty line outpaces inflationary processes. The second draft that we looked at is an ordinance on holidays and breaks. The main amendments are on parental leave and the possibilities for fathers to participate in child rearing. There are a series of possibilities to use this leave until the child reaches the age of 8", said Lazar Lazarov - Minister of Labour and Social Policy.

"KNSB does not support the poverty line because we insist that the methodology be revised. The methodology does not account for inflation in the small consumer basket. According to our calculations, the poverty line should be 541 BGN", said Lyuboslav Kostov from KNSB.

"We supported the increase of the poverty line to 504 BGN, but this requires a change in the methodology. This demand will be put before the regular government", explained Vanya Grigorova from the Confederation of Labour “Podkrepa".

"The poverty line is necessary as a parameter for the preparation of the budget for the next year. We also have comments on the methodology. We supported it as a useful right step to raise the poverty line", said Maria Mincheva from the Bulgarian Industrial Association.

"We supported the poverty line to increase. This represents the largest increase. This will help people in the current crisis", said Svetlin Iliev - vice-chairman of the Union for Economic Initiative.