Adequate levels of social protection benefits in Bulgaria

Country: Bulgaria
Body: European Committee of Social Rights
Case: Review of Bulgaria's compliance with Article 12 of the European Social Charter
Case number: Conclusions of the Committee - 2009/def/BGR/
Year of judgement: 2010
PDF of decision

Summary:
The European Committee of Social Rights notes that a social security system must guarantee an effective right to social security with respect to the benefits provided under each branch (Conclusions XIII-4, General Introduction on Article 12). Moreover, the Committee recalls that Article 12(1) requires social security benefits to be adequate, which means that, when they are income-replacement benefits, their level should be fixed such as to stand in reasonable proportion to the previous income and it should never fall below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold defined as 50 % of median equivalised income and as calculated on the basis of the Eurostat at-risk-of-poverty threshold value (Conclusions 2006, Bulgaria).

The Committee concludes that the situation in Bulgaria is not in conformity with Article 12(1) of the Revised Charter on the grounds that the minimum unemployment benefit; the minimum old age benefit; the minimum survivors’ benefit; the minimum employment injury benefit and the minimum invalidity benefit are inadequate.