National Statistical Institute

Statistics of Living Standart Department

Georgi Markov

Chief expert

2, P. Volov str., 1038 Sofia

GMarkov@nsi.bg

+359 2 9857 252

The European System of integrated Social PROtection Statistics (ESSPROS) is a specific tool for statistical monitoring of social transfers for social protection as well as their financing in the member states of the EU.

The social protection system consists of three parts - the core system, the module on pension beneficiaries and the module on net social protection benefits.

In the core system annual data for receipts and expenditure by scheme is provided as well as data on paid benefits by function "Sickness/Healthcare", "Disability", "Old age", "Survivors", "Family/Children", "Unemployment", "Housing" and "Social exclusion not elsewhere classified".

· Classification of ESSPROS functions;

· Classification of institutional sectors from which receipts of social protection schemes originate;

· Classification of expenditure of social protection system by type;

· Classification of social protection functions;

· Classification of social benefits in each function.

In Bulgaria ESSPROS includes the following social protection schemes:

• Pensions fund;
• Pensions not related to labor activities fund;
• Work injury and occupation diseases fund;
• General diseases and maternity fund;
• Unemployment fund;
• Teachers' pension fund;
• Professional pension funds;
• Universal pension funds;
• National Health Insurance Fund;
• Supplementary health insurance;
• Healthcare financed directly by government;
• Assistance of families with children and child protection;
• Social assistance;
• Social integration of disabled people;
• Active measures for employment;
• Social educational scholarships and grants;
• Social services provided by municipalities;
• Social benefits provided by employer.

The European System of integrated Social PROtection Statistics (ESSPROS) is an instrument of statistical observation which enables international comparison of the administrative national data on social protection in the EU Member States.

The conventional definition used for the scope of social protection definition is the following:

"Social Protection encompasses all interventions from public or private bodies intended to relieve households and individuals of the burden of a defined set of risks or needs, provided that there is neither a simultaneous reciprocal nor an individual arrangement involved. The list of risks or needs that may give rise to social protection is, by convention, as follows: Sickness/Health care, Disability, Old age, Survivors, Family/children, Unemployment, Housing and Social exclusion not elsewhere classified".

ESSPROS is meant as a common framework enabling a comprehensive and coherent description of social protection:

- covering social benefits to households and their financing;

- geared to international comparability;

- harmonising with other statistics, particularly the national accounts, in its main concepts.

The ESSPROS system

ESSPROS is composed of a Core system and of modules.

The Core system includes:

- Quantitative data: annual data on Social protection receipts and expenditures by scheme/groups of schemes and for the total of schemes; they provide a means of analysing and comparing social protection financial flows.

- Qualitative information: Metadata by social protection scheme and detailed benefit.

The Modules contain supplementary statistical information on particular aspects of social protection:

- A module on Pension Beneficiaries has been introduced in 2008 and data from 2006 to 2011 are available in Eurobase - ESSPROS domain. According to the EP and Council Regulation 458/2007 (Annex II), pension beneficiaries are defined as recipients of one or more of the periodic cash benefits of a social protection scheme falling within seven pension categories (disability pension; early retirement benefit due to reduced capacity to work; old-age pension; anticipated old-age pension; partial pension; survivors' pension; early retirement benefit due to labour market reasons).

The aim of the module on pension beneficiaries is to calculate the total number of beneficiaries within:

• Each of the previously mentioned seven categories of pensions;
• Each of the four functions grouping these categories (disability, old-age, survivors' and unemployment);
• and, at total level, for the aggregation of the four functions.

Social protection scheme

The European system of integrated social protection statistics gathers data on benefits provided, and their financing, as expenditures and receipts of the units that are responsible for providing social protection.

The territory of Bulgaria.

2005 - 2022

Not applicable.

Million BGN

Year

· Regulation (EC) No 458/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European system of integrated social protection statistics (ESSPROS);

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 1322/2007 on appropriate formats for transmission, results to be transmitted and criteria for measuring quality for the ESSPROS core system and the module on pension beneficiaries of 12/11/2007;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 10/2008 on definitions, detailed classifications and updating of the rules for dissemination for the ESSPROS core system and the module on pension beneficiaries of 08/01/2008;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 110/2011 as regards the appropriate formats for the transmission of data, the results to be transmitted and the criteria for measuring quality for the ESSPROS module on net social protection benefits;

· Commission Regulation (EC) No 263/2011 as regards the launch of full data collection for the ESSPROS module on net social protection benefits;

· Law on Statistics.

• Law on Statistics;

· Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Not applicable.

Date of publication of statistical information is available in the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the National Statistical Institute

The calendar is available on the NSI website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/480

Data on ESSPROS is published on the NSI website, section Social Protection in accordance with the Law on Statistics and the European Statistics Code of Practice respecting the professional independence and aimed at objectivity, transparency and equal treatment of all consumers.

Annualy

Receipts and expenditure for social protection.

Not applicable.

Detailed results on ESSPROS are available to all users of the NSI website under the heading Social Protection: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/6914 and informational system “Infostat”

Not applicable.

Information service on request, according to the Rules for the dissemination of statistical products and services in NSI.

· ESSPROS manual 1996 (published by Eurostat) for the period 1999-2005;

· ESSPROS manual, published in 2008 (Eurostat) for the period after 2005;

· ESSPROS manual, published in 2016 (Eurostat);

· European system of integrated social protection statistics ESSPROS — 2019 edition (Eurostat);

· European system of integrated social protection statistics ESSPROS — Manual and user guidelines — 2022 edition (Eurostat).

Quality information by scheme and type of benefits.

The European system for integrated social protection statistics is an annual survey which is conducted in the framework of Regulation No 458/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European system for social protection statistics, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1322/2007 on appropriate formats for transmission, results to be transmitted and criteria for measuring quality and Commission Regulation (EC) No 10/2008 on definitions, detailed classifications and updating of the rules for dissemination.

Data is accompanied by quality information for each social protection scheme as well as detailed description of the various types of benefits provided.

Quality report is prepared.

The main users of ESSPROS data are:

• Institutional users as other activities of the Commission, other European institutions, national administrative institutions (mainly those responsible for monitoring the social protection) or other international organizations;
• Eurostat, ministries and state agencies;
• Research organizations and institutions;
• End users - including the press - interested in receipts and expenditure of social protection in the EU.

No survey is conducted for user satisfaction.

ESSPROS encompasses interventions from public and private bodies intended to relieve households and individuals of the burden of a defined set of risks or needs, provided that there is neither a simultaneous reciprocal nor an individual arrangement involved.

As ESSPROS data are based on many administrative sources, the standard indicators for measuring accuracy are not directly applicable. Therefore, the accuracy is estimated by considering the non-sampling errors in the data sources.

ESSPROS is not a sample survey.

Limitations in the scope of and problems of measurement, evaluation of the method of estimation and revisions.

According to the schedule for ESSPROS data provision, defined by Regulation 458/2007, data is provided with a margin of 18 months.

The target date for provision of data on the ESSPROS core system is determined by the European Parliament and Regulation (EO) No 458/2007 of the Council (appendix 1, items 1.3 and 2.3), according to which quantitative data at all schemes level and qualitative information for year N must be disseminated by Eurostat no later than 31 October of year N+2.

Social protection schemes differ greatly between different countries. There are great differences in the number and share of these schemes. In some countries the number of social protection schemes is very high while in others, usually these with small number of beneficiaries, the schemes are only partially covered by the data sources.

There are minor changes as regards the schemes, data sources, timeliness and scope of data in different countries which means that data from different years are comparable.

Not applicable.

As far as possible, there needs to be coherence between quantitative data and qualitative information. Where benefits are classified under a certain scheme, the description of these benefits should be found in the qualitative information and vice versa, unless the scheme described in the qualitative information has not yet entered into force (i.e. no benefits are supplied in the reference year) or has expired (i.e. the scheme is split into two different schemes, merged with another scheme or definitively abolished).

Coherence should be ensured as far as possible between the core system and the module on pension beneficiaries. If there are benefits classified under a particular pension item for a scheme, the number of beneficiaries should be found in the corresponding item in the pension beneficiaries module, and vice versa.

Data is collected from administrative sources.

Not applicable.

Data revision is possible due to different reasons, for example change in the data sources used, change in the methods used for data estimation, due to adjustments in definitions used, etc.

Data are collected from the following administrative registers and information systems:

· Register "Pensions";

· NSSI Personal register;

· Detailed Annual Report of NSSI on pension expenditure, short-term expenditure and contribution income;

· Detailed Annual Report of NHIF on incomes and expenditure;

· Aggregated Report on Incomes of health insurance companies;

· Report on Benefits and Contibutions of health insurance companies by type of services;

· Detailed Annual Report on incomes and expenditure of Ministry of Health;

· Data base of annual execution of the Consolidated Fiscal Program;

· Information system of Social Assistance Agency;

· Detailed Annual Report on the implementation of the budget of Agency for People with Disabilities;

· Information system of Employment Agency;

· Information system of Ministry of Education and Science.

Additionally data from following statistical surveys are used:

· Annual Report of Enterprises on the employed, salaries paid and other expenditures for labour;

• Annual Report of Profesional and Universal Pension Funds on incomes and expenditures.

Annually

· Data files from administrative registers and information systems;

· Electronic form for some social protection schemes;

· Data from statistical surveys.

Some of the schemes should be balanced, i.e. total expenditure should be equal to total receipts.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.