Ljubljana - Some EUR 11.7 billion was earmarked for social protection programmes in Slovenia in 2020, which is 9.2% more than in 2019, with most of it being allocated for old age- and illness-related programmes and healthcare. Social protection accounted for a quarter of the country's GDP in 2020, or 2.8 percentage points more than the year before.

Almost 10% of Slovenia's GDP or 0.9 of a percentage point more than in 2019 was allocated for old age-related programmes, and 8.1% of GDP or 0.7 of a percentage point more for illness-related and healthcare programmes, the Statistics Office said.

Social protection programmes related to the family and children accounted for 1.9% of GDP or 0.1 of a percentage points more than in 2019, and programmes related to unemployment 1.4% of GDP or 0.9 of a percentage point more in the annual comparison.

Expenditure increased in most of the areas, most significantly in unemployment, where expenditure increased almost three times compared to 2019. This is mostly due to Covid-related measures, which included compensations for furloughed workers.

In the area of accommodation, expenditure was up by 8.3%, in old-age related programmes by 6.9%, for illness-related programmes and healthcare by 6.2%, and for social protection programmes related to the family and children by 3.1%.

The resources for financing of social protection programs, mainly social security contributions and contributions from the state, totalled EUR 11.4 billion.

Social security contributions accounted for 60.8%, amounting to EUR 6.9 billion, of which contributions from insured persons accounted for 39%, standing at EUR 4.4 billion, and contributions from employers accounting for 21.8% (EUR 2.48 billion).

Contributions from the state in 2020 accounted for 39% of total contributions, standing at EUR 4.4 billion. They were higher in nominal terms by 57.5% compared to 2019 mainly due to emergency measures during the Covid-19 epidemic.

In 2020, there were just over 664,400 recipients of pensions, or 2.4% more than the year before, with the number of recipients of old-age pensions increasing by 3.4% to 558,200. The number of recipients of disability pensions was slightly up to 23,700.