Budgetary proposals - Michael Briguglio
In today’s Malta, around 72,000 persons are at risk of poverty and around 3.3 per cent of the population is severely deprived. The latter figure is better than that of previous years, but this is no consolation for those who are facing daily misery. In view of Malta’s upward inflation rates, one also awaits the publication of more recent statistics.
In this regard, the government did introduce some positive measures in the past years. The most obvious one is free childcare centres for parents who work, though I believe that this be extended to all parents, so that all children can benefit from the service.
Another is the tapering of benefits, which intends to make work pay for persons who were erstwhile dependent on social benefits through in-work benefits such as the temporary retention of benefits over a three-year employment period.
Consequently, welfare-dependent persons decreased by 43 per cent to 7,940 over a six-year period. Still, I ask whether such persons are being employed in jobs which are decent, whether the government’s concurrent methods for removing persons off welfare benefits are based on dignified methods and whether some people are shifting from the official...