Financing of the social protection system in the country is realized either through socialsecurity contributions or through direct funding from the state budget. In 2015, the total receipts recorded in ESSPROS for financing the social protection system amounted to 16 956.6 million BGN, from which 8 036.46 million BGN were funds from the state budget, 8 610.5 million BGN were funds from social protection contributions and 309.7 million BGN were classified as other receipts. Compared to previous year, there was an increase of 6.9% of the receipts from social protection contributions and an increase of 6.6% of the general government contributions, according to data of the National Statistical Institute(NSI).

In 2015, Bulgaria spent 15 811.6 Million BGN  for social protection which represented around 17.9% of the gross domestic product for the same year. Compared to the previous year, 2014, the total expenditure on social protection increased by 2.2% and their corresponding share of the gross domestic product fell by 0.6 percentage points.

The ‘Old age’ function with its major component expenditure for pensions had the highest share (44.7%) in total expenditures. The ‘Sickness/Healthcare’ and ‘Family/Children’ functions also had a significant share of total expenditures - 26.8% and 10.9% respectively.