and educational status and is calculated as a proportion of the GMI threshold<sup>13</sup> . The benefit amount is the difference between the DMI and the gross family income from all sources, net of specific exceptions. The Council of Ministers set the GMI amount for 2018 at BGN 75 per month (38 Euros), and remained the same in 2020. The heating allowance is a non-contributory allowance granted to low-income households. During the cold season (from November to March), the Heating Allowance is given to eligible individuals. The right to a targeted heating allowance is granted to persons with income lower than the Differentiated Minimum Income for Heating (DMIH), which varies based on family demographics. The Minister of Labor and Social Policy determines the benefit amount for each heating season, lasting five months from November 1st to March 30th. For the 2020/2021 heating season, the corresponding benefit was BGN 99.16 monthly during the heating season. In 2022, the Bulgarian government implemented a reform to broaden individual access to social support. This involved raising the differentiated minimum income threshold (DMI) to 25% of the relative poverty line, impacting related programs like the Guarantee Minimum Income (GMI) and heating allowance.

_Other social protection benefits_

# **In addition to the family and social exclusion benefits mentioned above, the social protection system**

**in Bulgaria also includes disability, old-age, unemployment, survivor, and housing benefits.** These benefits are not directly intended to benefit children, but they can provide benefits to families with children. These indirect benefits can play an important role in supporting families with children and helping them to overcome financial hardship.

# _Indirect subsidies (electricity and gas) and direct and indirect taxes_

**Other important elements of the fiscal system can indirectly affect children.** These include indirect subsidies related to electricity and gas consumption, direct taxes comprising personal income taxes and social security contributions, and indirect taxes such as VAT and excises, covering fuel, alcoholic beverages, and tobacco.

**Our fiscal incidence analysis includes most of these fiscal interventions, building upon previous work by Vaughn and Cabrera (2020) but with a more detailed examination of benefits for families and children.** In this analysis, we included different interventions that allow for a fiscal incidence analysis, such as those included in the work of Vaughn and Cabrera (2020). A more detailed analysis of benefits for families and children is incorporated. For this category of social protection, the modeling detail was the one permitted by the SILC survey information and available administrative figures. Some programs appear "grouped," meaning they could not be identified individually. On the other hand, although some programs directly benefit children, since the CEQ methodology does not have an approach to measure the effect of in-kind transfers, they were not considered in the monetary poverty analysis. They are included in the inequality analysis. The interventions included in the CEQ and child poverty analysis are summarized in Table 1, Panel A. Moreover, we identify child-relevant budgets, that is, public spending or tax revenues that explicitly target child well-being (Cuesta et al., 2021), as well as those that indirectly affect them (table 1 panel b).

> 13 See Annex 1 for detailed parameters.

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