Bulgarian pensioners to get 50 leva monthly ‘bonus’ until end of current government’s term
All pensioners in Bulgaria will be paid an additional 50 leva (about 25.5 euro) a month until the end of the current government’s term of office, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said on October 1.
As a response to the Covid-19 crisis, the Bulgarian government began paying an additional 50 leva a month to all of the country’s 2.1 million pensioners in August.
In a Facebook post to mark the International Day of Older Persons, Borissov said in the 2021 Budget, “we will be seeking a fair update of pensions”.
He said during the most difficult days of the pandemic, the government had made the lives, health and social care of the elderly a priority.
“We did not allow Covid-19 to spread uncontrollably in social services. We provided those living alone and people in difficulty with disinfectants, a hot lunch and social care. We increased pensions by 6.7 per cent in the complicated economic situation,” Borissov said.
If the schedule is kept to, Bulgaria will hold parliamentary elections at about the end of March 2021.
For several years, it has been the practice of a succession of Bulgarian governments, since well before Borissov’s, to pay “bonuses” to pensioners, customarily at Christmas and at the time of the Orthodox Christian Easter.
(Photo: Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry press centre)
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