The three-pillar pension system allows you to receive a supplementary pension from a supplementary compulsory pension fund (Pillar II - Universal Pension Fund and Professional Pension Fund), as well as a pension from a supplementary voluntary pension fund (Pillar III - Voluntary Pension Fund).

If you use all forms of pension insurance, you can secure a good level of income in your post-retirement years.

If you were born after 31.12.1959, you must be insured, in addition to the Pension Fund of the State Social Insurance (Pillar I - State Social Insurance), in the Universal Pension Fund for a second pension (Pillar II - Supplementary Compulsory Pension Insurance).

Those born after 31.12.1959 can also be insured in the Professional Pension Fund if they work in Category I or II.

Persons born before 01.01.1960 are insured only in the Pension Fund of the State Social Insurance (Pillar I - State Social Insurance) and have the possibility to be insured also in the Professional Pension Fund (Pillar II - PPF) if they work under the conditions of category I or II work.

All activities in categories I and II of work are described in detail in the Ordinance on the classification of work in retirement. For more information, see the Social Security Code.

The amount of the contribution to the Universal Pension Fund (UPF) and the Professional Pension Fund (PPF) is determined annually in the Law on the Budget of the State Social Insurance.

If you are employed, the amount of the monthly contribution to the Universal Pension Fund set for 2024 is 5% of your insurance income, of which 2.8% is paid by your employer and the remaining 2.2% is paid by you.

If you are self-employed, the contributions to the Universal Pension Fund are entirely at your own expense.

For civil servants, contributions are covered entirely by the employer (the state).

If you work in category I or II, the contribution to the Professional Pension Fund is entirely at the expense of the employer. The rate for 2024 is 12% of the insurance income for category I work and 7% of the insurance income for category II work.

If you don't choose a pension company to manage your second pension funds within three months of starting your first job, you will be allocated by the National Revenue Agency (NRA) to one of the supplementary pension companies. 

It is important to choose a pension company that will manage your money responsibly and professionally in the years leading up to retirement.

The funds in the individual account can be transferred to another pension fund if 1 year has passed since your last transfer (the 1-year time limit applies both from the last change of participation and from the conclusion of the first insurance contract, service allocation, or resumption of insurance in the UPF under Article 124a of the Social Security Code).

Persons born after 31 December 1959 (according to the amendments to the Social Security Code adopted at the end of July 2015) who are insured in a universal pension fund may change their insurance by directing their contributions to the State Pension Fund (respectively, to the Pension Fund for persons referred to in Article 69*). The change from the insurance in the UPRF to the insurance in the Pension Fund, respectively the Fund "Pensions for persons under Article 69" of the Social Security Code*, and vice versa, may be made repeatedly, but after the expiry of at least 1 year from the last change of insurance. The final choice must be made as follows:

▶ from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2025 - up to 1 year before the age referred to in Art. 68 para. 1;

▶ from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2030 - up to 2 years before the age referred to in Article 68(1) of the Social Security Code;

▶ from 1 January 2031 to 31 December 2035 - up to 3 years before the age referred to in Art. 68 par. 1 of the Social Security Code;

▶ from 1 January 2036 to 31 December 2037 - up to 4 years before the age referred to in Article 68(1) of the Social Security Code;

▶ after 1 January 2038 - up to 5 years before the age referred to in Art. 68 par. 1 of the Social Security Code.

and provided that no pension has been granted.

The pension is determined by the accumulated amount in the individual insurance account, i.e. by the amount of contributions received during the insurance period, their number and the yield realised by the pension fund managing the funds, as well as by the biometric tables approved by the Financial Supervision Commission and the technical interest rate used by pension funds.

In the case of supplementary voluntary pension insurance, the final outcome depends entirely on how much a person has managed to accumulate by the time he or she decides to retire. From this point of view, this pension depends mainly on three things - the amount of contributions, the period of insurance and the investment income.

The earlier you start contributing to a voluntary pension fund, the greater the possibility that in the years after retirement your pension will make up a significant percentage of your final salary.

The annual tax base shall be reduced by the personal contributions made during the calendar year up to a total of 10% of the tax base. The monthly tax base for income from employment shall be reduced by the personal contributions made during the month through the employer up to a total of 10% of the monthly tax base.

For information, see the Social Security Code and the Personal Income Tax Act (Article 254 of the Social Security Code and Article 19(1) and (2) of the Personal Income Tax Act).

Your individual insurance account is kept in units in addition to the BGN.

All contributions that enter your account are accounted for in units and fractions of units. Each unit represents a proportionate part of the net assets of the fund. The value of a unit on a particular date enables you to calculate the amount of funds in euro in your account on that date.

You need to multiply the number of units that make up your account by the value per unit. You can find the value per unit in the Value per unit section.

If you wish, you can change the following parameters in your supplementary voluntary pension insurance contract at any time:

• contribution amount;

• frequency of payment of the contribution;

• the persons named as heirs under the contract.

You can complete an amendment to your supplementary voluntary pension contract by:

• visit our office:

• requesting an appointment with one of our advisers in the Customer Contact Centre on freephone 0800 11 464.

You can access your batch online in one of the following ways:

• by visiting our office;
• by completing the "Personal Data Update Request Form" and emailing it to clients@ubb-pensions.bg, signed with your personal electronic signature.

Contact us on freephone 0800 11 464 or email us at clients@ubb-pensions.bg for assistance.

Bank: Unicredit Bulbank

IBAN: BG70 UNCR 9660 1004 3606 03

BIC: UNCR BGSF

You can apply for a transfer by:

• visit our office;
• completing the "Application for Change of Participation" and "UPF Contract" documents and emailing them to clients@ubb-pensions.bg, signed with your personal electronic signature;
• contact us free on 0800 11 464 to arrange a meeting with one of our advisers at a time and place convenient to you.

Contact us on freephone 0800 11 464 and we will assist you.

Transactions with a minus sign represent offsets, i.e. contributions that are initially remitted by the NRA and then offset (reversed) by the NRA in subsequent payments.

If you see transactions with a negative sign on your statement, this means that such offsets have also been made on your account.

Reasons for this could be data corrections made by your employer. Corrections can be made until 30 April of the year following the year to which they relate at the latest, and after that date only with the express permission of the NRA or the National Social Security Institute.

If you want to know the specific reasons why adjustments have been made to your contributions, you can make an enquiry to the NRA.

Your employer is obliged to transfer the social security contributions to the National Revenue Agency (NRA) by the 25th of the month following the month in which the work was performed.

The employer must also submit a declaration of your working days and wages within this period. Self-employed persons submit their declaration individually.  

This information allows the NRA to individualise the contributions for each insured person. The NRA must transfer the employer's contribution to the UBB Universal Pension Fund account within 30 days of receipt. Upon receipt, UBB Universal Pension Fund will credit the amount received to your individual account.

The terms and conditions are determined by the pension fund you are in.

• The funds in the UBB Universal Pension Fund are earmarked for the payment of a supplementary old-age pension for life. It will start to be paid when you reach the retirement age referred to in Art. 68, par. 1 of the Social Security Code. Its payment may also start up to one year before that, provided that the accumulated funds in your individual account allow for the granting of a pension in an amount not less than the minimum amount of the retirement pension under Article 68(1) of the Social Security Code. If you have a permanent disability for life of more than 89.99%, you may receive a lump sum of up to 50% of the amount accumulated in your account. 
• Insurance in the UBB Professional Pension Fund entitles you to a fixed-term professional pension for early retirement. If you have a permanent disability for life of more than 89.99%, you can receive a lump sum of up to 50% of the amount accumulated in the account.
• The funds accumulated in the individual account in the UBB Voluntary Pension Fund from personal contributions can be withdrawn at any time. A tax of 10% may be withheld on these funds. The amounts are taxable only if the client who withdraws funds from his/her VPF account has benefited from tax benefits and withdraws funds without being in an insured case, i.e. there is no pension or Labour-Еxpert Medical Commission decision above 50%. If the customer withdraws funds from his/her account and is in an insurable case (i.e. has a pension or Labour-Еxpert Medical Commission decision above 50%), whether or not he/she has taken tax relief on the input, he/she is not subject to charges and deductions by the pension company.
• You can only receive the funds accumulated from employer contributions when you become eligible for a retirement pension under the Social Security Code, up to 5 years before, or if you have a permanent disability over 50%, regardless of the duration of the Labour-Еxpert Medical Commission decision.