Bulgaria's Progress on the Europe 2020 Strategy on Poverty

One of the key policy components of the Europe 2020 strategy is poverty alleviation. The aim of the paper is to analyse and systematize the current state of the indicator "population at risk of poverty and social exclusion after social transfers (without retirement payments)"as well as the relative share of vulnerable persons in the Republic of Bulgaria by type of household with a view to the country’s progress on the Europe 2020 strategy. Design/methodology/approach: Objectives are achieved with yearly comparison of indicator “people at risk of poverty and social exclusion after social transfers” in Bulgaria with its average value at EU28 and EU27, and social groups. Considering the fact that the National Statistics Institute (NSI) has started to evaluate the macroeconomic poverty indicators since the membership of Bulgaria in the European Union the analysed period in this paper is 2006-2016. Findings: The results of the conducted analyses highlight a problem with the optimization of the social spending in Bulgaria. Research/practical implications: The paper represents an important social problem affecting the modern society. Despite the growing number of papers and literature related to social spending this publication provides an empirical evidence for the relationship between poverty alleviation and social spending. Originality/value:Social dimensions to Bulgaria's statistics indicate a high degree of income differentiation. Despite the priority targets set for the Europe 2020 strategy and the impact of social policy, public social transfers are failing to reduce poverty.