The Bulgarian Parliament approved at second reading on Tuesday the amendments to the Social Insurance Code.

A total of 97 MPs voted in favour of the pension reform of Deputy Prime Minister Ivaylo Kalfin, 20 MPs voted against and 10 abstained, daily Dnevnik informs.

After the retirement age was frozen for two years, it will start to gradually increase from 2016, both for men and women, Darik radio reports.

The reform foresees that next year women will retire at the age of 60 years and 10 months with having acquired a working experience of 35 years and 2 months, while men will be able to retire at the of 63 years and 10 months with a working experience of 38 years and 2 months.

From 2016, the retirement age will increase by two months each year until 2029, while the retirement age for men will rise with two months in the first two years, dropping to one month from 2018.

In 2037, both genders will retire at the age of 65 years, with men having acquired working experience of 40 years, while the corresponding figure for women will be 37 years.

In case, people are lacking the required work experience, they will be able to retire at the age of 65 years and 10 months until the end of 2016, while the retirement age will start to increase from 2017 until it reaches 67 years.

People, who have acquired the necessary work experience, will be able to retire a year earlier, but will receive a lower pension for the rest of their lives.

A minimum retirement age of 52 years and 10 months is introduced for policemen and military personnel.

The corresponding age for pilots, divers and paratroopers will be 42 years and 10 months with a work experience of 15 years.

From 2017, the retirement age for these professions starts to increase by two months until it reaches respectively 55 and 45 years.

Ballet dancers and dancers will retire at the age of 42 years and 10 months, with the retirement age increasing from 2017 until it reaches 45 years.

The retirement age for people in first category of labour will increase for both men and women until it reaches 55 years, while for those in second category of labour the retirement age should level out at 60 years.

In 2017 and 2018, the contribution for pension will increase by a total of 2 %, reaching 19.8 percentage points.

The MPs approved the right of people to switch the contributions for second supplementary pension between the National Social Security Institute (NOI) and the private pension funds.

The contributions can be switched back and forth multiple times, but the final choice has to be made at the latest five years before fulfillment of the retirement conditions.

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