Denitsa Sacheva, chair of the parliamentary committee on labor and social policy, has appealed to the Minister of Labor and Social Policy Borislav Gutsanov to develop legislative proposals aimed at financially supporting citizens before the upcoming holidays – Easter and Christmas. The information was published on the social network Facebook by Ms. Sacheva herself.
In the same post, the letter from Sacheva to Minister Gutsanov is also included, outlining the specific steps to be taken. The minister is expected to present legislative proposals to the members of the labor and social policy committee by December 20. These should be prepared on the basis of an analysis of practices in other countries, the experience of the Social Assistance Agency and the National Social Security Institute (NSSI) to date, as well as in accordance with the information files of the National Revenue Agency (NRA). The aim is to create a new type of support or allowance for individuals and families, which should be provided twice a year – before Christmas and before Easter. The expert proposals from Minister Gutsanov should include calculations for the different groups of people, as well as criteria for the scope and possible amounts of assistance to citizens. This will be followed by a procedure of public discussion and final political decisions, it is stated in the letter.
"Holidays are a symbol of community, and social exclusion on these days is most painful. Christmas and Easter are holidays that in the whole European civilization are associated with family, closeness, traditions, solidarity, hope. When the poorest do not have the opportunity to participate, they fall not just into material, but into cultural and emotional isolation. The role of the state is to integrate, not to divide and isolate," Sacheva emphasizes in her letter. According to her, the current way of paying such allowances distorts the pension model, as they should not be considered as an addition to the pension, but as a form of social support, therefore an element of the social assistance system. Ms. Sacheva emphasizes that such debates often lead to fierce attacks between political opponents, additional divisions in society and accusations of populism, which negatively affect the most vulnerable groups. She adds that a sustainable legislative solution is needed and that this issue should not be resolved depending on the political situation, but should be treated as a matter of conscious state policy.
Demands for Christmas allowances for pensioners were also expressed by Delyan Peevski, leader of the political formation "DPS-New Beginning", in a letter to the Minister of Finance Temenuzhka Petkova.