The "French unemployment scheme" is no longer working and compensation of about 2300 BGN is now almost impossible. It was received by Bulgarians who only worked for 2-3 days in a foreign country, and then received compensation for several months.
"A little over seven months ago, we made changes to the Social Security Code, linking the amount of unemployment benefits to the contributions made by employees in other countries. We ended the vicious practice of paying maximum benefits to people who work for a few days in an EU Member State and then become permanent 'customers' of the labour offices. Their funds are now calculated in the same way as those of employees and contributors in Bulgaria," wrote Denitsa Sacheva, head of the social committee in parliament, on Facebook.
The number of these people has decreased by nearly 600 individuals - from 8550 to 7971. Before the changes, the average size of their compensations was 1402 BGN, as confirmed by the director of the National Social Security Institute, Ivaylo Ivanov, in response to a question. This accounts for 19.9% of all paid funds. Six months after its implementation, the average size is now 1015 BGN, or 14.4% of all paid compensations.
According to the NSSI's data, before the amendments to the Civil Service Act, there were regions such as Blagoevgrad, where the percentage of these funds was above 68%.
Only seven months later, we can see a decrease of over 13%, and in Sliven - almost 14%. I hope that the results of our work in the future will be even more decisive. As a country, we cannot afford to be indifferent to the abuse of public funds. "We need to work in order to encourage people to return to the labor market and not be a part of the informal economy. Without closing the door to corrupt practices, this cannot happen," writes Sacheva.