Looking for Care work

In short it's a probable no.. the Bulgarian people tend to care for their own elderly families, families are very important to them, and they often live together within an extended family.  I don't even know whether care homes exist here? Maybe there are such establishments in the bigger cities? I don't know though? Even if such establishments did exist, how would your wife communicate with them? Does she speak Bulgarian?

@Ant64

There is one in samokov  but as Jules says the language barrier is going to be a problem

Thanks for your advice

@Ant64

There are care homes and care agencies here, as there are in the UK. But I'd imagine that Bulgarian language and/or Bulgarian qualifications might be a likely requirement.

The salary difference might be a shock too. A self-employed carer is about 1k GBP per week + agency fee... whereas a similar person here might be 1k euros per month.

It probably won't be a shock if your employed by a care home which most are ...  Minimum wage...  overtime at single time unless your called in prior to a shift then it's time and a half.. few and far between I'm afraid though

Public holidays single time ..  night shifts same pay as days just more hours 12 instead of 6

Where we live in the southeast it's a care home paradise...   And they pay minimum wages .

I don't think qualifications will be much of a problem as it's pretty much compulsory to have to do online courses on all sorts of subjects

My wife's worked for various care homes for the last 8 years

I wonder if there's a business offering home care in areas with a high population of English speaking expats, as previously healthy retirees reach to the point where they may need extra help but don't want to return to their country of origin, and don't know enough Bulgarian to cope with having Bulgarian carers.

I don't know such a service exists, but I can see a potential need for it.

@janemulberry

Now that's a good idea Jane..    and has a definite potential

we are planning to move to Bulgaria. My wife has been a carer for last 30 years or more. are there any jobs for carers there James McSeveney 

we are planning to move to Bulgaria. My wife has been a carer for last 30 years or more. are there any jobs for carers there James McSeveney - @jamesmcseveney

In a nutshell, only if you work on the black.  We have a carer looking after my mother-in-law - the number of hoops she had to jump through to get accredited and registered is pretty impressive.  I'd imagine that grassing-up the "unofficials" is an understandably common practice...

James, I think it would be challenging. The answers are likely to be the same as Ant, the original poster received.

As Jim said, there are a lot of admin things needed to work as a registered carer. She'd need to do all the same things British care agencies require like health and safety, lifting, protection issues, and all the rest, and she'd need to do them in a foreign language. Getting a work permit requires passing a proficiency test in Bulgarian. None of her UK qualifications will be recognised in the EU as Britain isn't part of it anymore.

It could be possible to arrange unofficial work in areas with big expat communities caring for elderly Brits who need help, want an English-speaking carer, but don't want to return to the UK. But that would be far lower paid than equivalent work in the UK and somewhat uncertain.

The other issue post-Brexit is getting a work permit and visa to stay more than the allowed 90 days per 180. If either of you are retired and getting  a pension, whether work-based or the state pension, the retired person can get a D visa, then residency, and bring their spouse in under family reunification. I don't know if the spouse would be allowed to work in that case.

It's not easy for working age people to get residency now. You'll find many of the posters here are already in Bulgaria, having moved under the previous rules, and the rest (including me!) are trying to figure out how to get in legally under the new rules!

@Ant64

Good news: there are plenty of old people here.

Bad news: most of them don't have enough money to pay for care (the average pension here is less than 400 euros pm, my grocery bill alone is WAY more than that). 400 might be generous, as this link has data from 2021, showing the Bulgarian average pension is 226 euros vs 1294 for the EU average!

https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/ … retirement

Of course, some older folks do have money, or wealthy offspring, but it does greatly reduce the possibilities. I have live-in carers at my gaff as I'm looking after my old dad, and I get them from a local care agency. They're called Mobilenhospis (prices shown on their website) and they cover the main cities (Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas). But his pension income is nearly 3k euros per month, so we're in a very different situation from the typical Bulgarian pensioner. Even so, I don't have much left at the end of the month (but I'm happy as we were spending nearly 10k UKP pm in the UK, for worse care - frankly, another reason I love Bulgaria).