We have made an offer for 2 months increase in retirement age and length of service, but it is conditional. This was stated by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor and Social Policy Ivaylo Kalfin in introducing his team today.
According to him, 2 months is an option if long-term changes are seen. If there is no agreement from the social partners and the parties, we cannot do it without them. If there is no agreement to change, they remain with 4 months raising the retirement age under current legislation, Kalfin pointed out.
He expressed his consent to the criminalization of failure to pay social security. Kalfin explained that the pension of those who retire early will be reduced by 0.4 %.
On the social security budget, which is to be voted on at first reading in parliament, Calfin said the time between first and second reading is one week, which means there is not much time to reach the requested arrangements, but it will be done everything necessary, still have them.
We are working on the specific proposals left by the caretaker government, we have also developed a dialogue with the social partners.
In the next few days we will do 2 things - agree on legislative changes related to this budget and these proposals that we are making now should be included in a longer-term framework, said the Deputy Prime Minister. He announced that there is an option for an agreement between the government and the social partners.
Deputy Minister Nikolay Nikolov, whose work priority is the pension system, said that he is in favor of a smooth option of increasing the retirement age and equalizing the age for men and women in a more distant perspective.
We cannot accept the proposed 4 month increase in age because since 2000 we have increased age and seniority dramatically, he said. According to him, increasing the age by 2 months enables a smoother and more predictable change in the pension system.
Ivaylo Kalfin presented the priorities of the program to support the poorest and OP "Human Resources", which were approved last week.
OP "Human Resources Development" 2014-2020 has 3 main goals - quality employment, poverty reduction and institutional capacity. Their value is BGN 2.136 billion in total. On the Bulgarian side, the financing amounts to BGN 300 million.
These funds go to the institutional covers, transnational cooperation, social inclusion, employment, technical assistance, and every 10th Bulgarian will have access to the program. This meant about BGN 3,000 per beneficiary.
The main axes of the program are related to improving access to employment and the quality of jobs, reducing poverty and promoting social inclusion, modernization of institutions in the field of social inclusion, health care, equal opportunities.
About 20% of the total goes to institutional capacity, 2/3 of the rest will be spent on employment programs and the last 1/3 on social inclusion. 762 thousand people should be covered by the measures and funding. 8,000 young people will be employed with a 6-month internship under the youth employment program until the age of 23. Kalfin hopes the youth employment program will start early next year.
Regarding OP for food under the European Assistance Fund to the most needy persons, Kalfin pointed out that in our country we know a program in another format that went through the Ministry of Health and there were quite a few scandals related to it. Then the most needy received food packages.
Now The Social Assistance Agency will be the governing body. The program will not only be about distributing food, it will be expanded with public dining rooms, of which there are currently 180 in the country, but they only work in the winter.
The goal, Kalfin explained, is to make the dining halls year-round, as well as to expand the range of people who use them. Because the program is approved now, it was ready to start next winter, but we are doing everything we can to make it effective this winter, Kalfin said. BGN 241 million is the budget of the operational program.