Annotation stated: since it is planned to disburse the parenting benefit in full amount and without any restrictions also to employed persons who at the same time receive income from work, the parenting insurance does not conform to the real meaning of social insurance. Furthermore, since the implementation of this benefit was supposed to be provided from the existing social insurance contributions, it would negatively affect the social insurance special budget in a long-term perspective. Implementing the parenting benefit and disbursing it from this budget in keeping with the current social insurance contribution rate, the reserve accrued in this budget would be spent 10 years earlier than planned (see Annotation to the draft law Amendments to the Law on State Social Insurance, reg. No. 470/Lp9, http://www.saeima.lv/saeima9/lasa?dd=LP0470_0, accessed on 2 December 2009). The draft law annotation stated that the overall social insurance contribution rate would be maintained in the amount of 33.09 %, and the service (parenting benefit) corresponding to parental insurance would be financed from the disability, maternity and sickness special budget funds, changing proportionally the distribution of expenditures of these special budgets (see Annotation to the draft law, reg. No. 470/Lp9). It is evident from the Cabinet of Ministers regulations pertaining to the distribution of social insurance contribution rates by State social insurance types that in 2009 the proportion of mandatory social insurance contributions intended for parental insurance has increased for approximately 70 % compared to 2008; i.e. the proportion has increased from 1.08 % in 2008 to 1.85 % in 2009. The Constitutional Court maintained that, keeping the social insurance contribution rate in the amount of 33.09 %, the legislator had no basis for introducing a new type of social insurance. As a result of this, the balance of the social insurance budget was unsettled and its sustainability – put in danger. The newly introduced type of social insurance – parental benefit – is paid from the social insurance budget without respective additional contributions therein. It is also evident from the draft materials of the Law on State Social Insurance that the initially established social insurance contribution rate was planned for financing only five types of State social insurance – State pension insurance, social insurance in case of unemployment, social insurance against accidents at work and occupational 61