Bulgaria - Accumulation of periods of social insurance cover from the European Union and the European Economic Area

The provisions of the regulations on social security (Regulation (EC) № 883/2004 and Regulation (EC) № 987/2009) provide for the mutual respect of insurance periods by States in cases when a person has lived and/or worked in more than one Member State. These provisions also apply for Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Switzerland and in some cases for the United Kingdom.The Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK regulate other cases of social security rights.

In what situation can I claim?

One of the fundamental principles of the EU is free movement and settlement. This is guaranteed in a number of ways, one of which is uninterrupted social security wherever you are located in the EU and for whatever reasons.

Uninterrupted social security coverage means that our periods of insurance cover in the various Member States are valid everywhere in the other Member States as if they were their own.

Periods of social insurance cover from a number of Member States are calculated as if they were attained in one and the same country. The same applies to periods of employment and residence. Only the periods are taken into consideration, not the amount of insurance contributions paid.

Each case needs to be assessed individually to determine whether a person falls within the scope of Art 30 of the Withdrawal Agreement, and so the EU Coordination Regulations apply, or if they fall within the scope of situations described in Art 32 of the Withdrawal Agreement and/or come under domestic legislation

What conditions do I need to meet?

Periods of social insurance cover from a number of Member States are taken into consideration for all forms of benefits in all areas of social security:

sickness benefit in cash or in kind;
maternity/paternity benefits in cash or in kind;
disability benefits in cash or in kind;
old age pensions;
benefits in the event of death;
benefits for accidents at work and occupational diseases in cash or in kind;
pre-retirement benefits;
unemployment benefits;
family benefits;
special benefits not dependent on contributions.

Periods of social benefit cover provided in the event of poverty are not taken into consideration.

Benefits or pensions are paid everywhere in the EU no matter where the person lives and which country has granted the benefits.

Your benefit entitlement depends on the conditions in which you acquired the entitlement in the state providing the benefit.

If you have paid social insurance contributions while working in a number of EU countries, your insurance contributions are not transferred to any one of them. Instead, you receive benefits or pensions from all countries in which you are insured or from only one of them but for all insured periods. If your social insurance in one Member State is obligatory and you have also opted to insure yourself on a voluntary basis, only the period of obligatory insurance is taken into account.

What am I entitled to and how can I claim?

The exchange of information between the competent institutions in the EU regarding social security rights is carried out entirely via electronic means. Therefore, upon occurrence of the respective event, it is necessary to indicate to the relevant competent institution in the country where you live at the time of application that you have insurance periods in other countries as well. Subsequently, your insurance periods will be confirmed by the competent institutions, using the electronic exchange. Therefore, it is not necessary to take action to respect your insurance periods, as they will be confirmed by the competent institutions when applying for a certain type of benefit from the material scope of coordination regulations.

Jargon busters

European Economic Area (EEA): countries of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

Forms you may need to fill in

Social security information for persons is transferred between the competent institutions electronically via EESSI.

Know your rights

The laws and web pages of the institutions which determine your rights can be found by following the links below. These are not European Commission pages and do not represent the opinion of the Commission:

European Commission publications: