Totyu Mladenov: Many of the ethnic Roma people in Bulgaria spend child benefits on liquor

Many of the ethnic Roma people in Bulgaria spend child benefits on liquor, Totyu Mladenov, Minister of Labour and Social Policy, told BNT. He has instructed District Governors and the Social Assistance Agency to make unscheduled checks to see if the children of such people attend school. If it turns out that they do not, the payments will be suspended for a few months. Similar inspections were carried out earlier this year.

“Maternity benefits are financed from contributions to the National Social Security Institute (NSSI),” Mladenov reminded, adding that there is not enough money to raise the payments to mothers at this point. According to him, BGN 400 mln have been set aside for this type of expenditure in the 2013 budget and another BGN 500 mln are to be spend on helping low-income parents who will receive BGN 35 per child. The Social Ministry’s figures show that 85% of all Bulgarian children receive such aid. Mladenov reiterated his point about how important it is for mothers to go back to work as soon as possible in order to earn more.

Once there are enough working daycare centres and nurseries, we could discuss again the idea of cancelling maternity benefits for the second year and use the money to increase the size of the payments during the first year, Mladenov speculated. He also said he supports the joint family taxation regime on which the Ministry of Finance and the National Revenue Agency are expected to make a decision.

“The state has the funds needed to raise maternity benefits,” Sonya Konakchieva from the Association of Future and Present Mothers told klassa.bg. A brief look at the official site of NSSI shows that BGN 24 mln have been saved because of the drop in the birth rate to 10%, she said.

According to Vladislav Goranov, Deputy-Minister of Finance, there won’t be an increase since Bulgaria already has the longest maternity leave with pay.

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