290,000 persons benefitted from several social measures
The Ministry for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children’s Rights has already carried out 95% of the 2021 Budget Measures with 17 out of 18 social measures already completely implemented.
It is estimated that in total approximately 290,000 persons benefitted from one of these measures with the majority of the beneficiaries being families and pensioners. The expenditure on pensions only, exceeded €900 million throughout 2021. The increase in expenditure on pensions and social benefits this year shall reach almost €60 million. The total expenditure on pensions and social benefits by the end of this year shall reach close to €1.12 billion.
Minister Falzon made this announcement during a press conference where he expressed his satisfaction on the completion rate of these measures and the tangible difference that all these measures will make in people’s lives.
The Minister said that the total expenditure of the Ministry in 2021 shall exceed €1.6 billion, meaning that out of a total expenditure by Government of €6.5 billion, this Government shall be investing 54% of these funds in the social area and thus investing them in people.
“This is the greatest confirmation of the exceptional social soul of this government and of how much we are truly a government for the people. We shall continue to invest in people because we believe in the potential of each and every one of you. We are a government of social justice, a government of social mobility and most of all a government with a social soul. We shall continue to help even more people who are at risk of poverty and social exclusion” stated Minister Falzon.
During a detailed presentation Mark Musù, the permanent secretary within the Ministry said that in the first six months of this year, 17 measures were carried out with only one remaining measure planned for implementation for this coming November. This measure concerns those workers (or their heirs) who were employed in one of the corps prior to 1979 or worked with the Gas Board and later joined the public service or the public sector. Around 5,500 persons shall benefit from this measure with an estimated expenditure of €9.5 million.
Mr Musù also mentioned how throughout the first six months of this year, besides an expenditure of approximately €19 million in children’s allowance, 42,600 families had already been paid around €1.75 million in additional children’s allowance supplements. By the end of this year the total expenditure on the children’s allowance benefit is expected to reach €42 million with nearly €4 million of these being children’s allowance supplement. Among other measures, further increase in expenditure was also observed in the in-work benefit, supplementary allowance and foster care allowance.