Bulgaria: 60/40 Payroll Support Measure Extended till September 2021

The government extends the 60/40 payroll support measure for businesses and workers until September 2021. This became clear during a working meeting of the government, the Council of Ministers press office announced.

"At the next sitting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday we will approve BGN 106 million for pensioners in January- extra BGN 50 for each retiree during the pandemic", said Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

In his words, the measures are aimed at keeping people's jobs, lives and living standards. "That is why vaccine is so important for us, we are happy to see every day the upward trend in the number of people who have recovered, now they are nearly twice the number of infected," Borisov said.

Minister of Labor Denitsa Sacheva explained that the support measures 60-40 and 80-20 continue to be in effect next year. The "Keep Me" measure will be transformed from January 1 to 75/20 with the hope of providing more money.

"BGN 50 million is envisioned for the new design of "Keep Me" program. The measure 80-20 will be financed with European funds, to this end the reorganized resource of BGN 40 million under Operational Program Human Resources Development will be used.

For the 60-40 measure in 2021, we have BGN 600 million, which will be enough almost until September, so employers and employees need to be reassured that there is support from the state, Sacheva said

"So far under the measure 60/40 BGN 627 million have been paid and 250 000 jobs have been saved. As regards 80-20 measure with a supplement of BGN 250 for hotel, restaurant, tourism and transport sectors, BGN 23 million was paid and a total of 24 858 jobs have been saved", the Minister of Labor and Social Policy pointed out.

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