Press Release by the Ministry for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children’s Rights: The Social Ministry has carried out 95% of the electoral manifesto

Reference Number: PR211181

The Ministry for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children’s Rights has already carried out 95% of the electoral manifesto in its entirety, since the Labour government had once again been re-elected to lead the country in June of 2017. This Ministry is responsible for carrying out the majority of social measures, and till now 24 out of 34 electoral proposals have been carried out in their entirety.

This was announced by Minister for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children’s Rights, Michael Falzon, whilst addressing the news conference on Monday afternoon. During this conference, details were provided of some of the most life-changing measures throughout people’s lives, primarily amongst them being the increase in pensions and in children’s allowance, together with a number of measures which positively impact specific niches.

Minister Michael Falzon said that these very positive results directly reflect the strong social situation that all of us are benefitting from in our country. He recalled how this Government had started out with a situation of excessive deficit, many people without employment and others who were dependent on social benefits.

As concerning the rate of poverty and social exclusion, a decrease was noted from 46.1% in 2014 to 23.8% during the year 2019, in terms of lack of material and social resources. It was also stated that in the upcoming months, a change is to be implemented across the system used to measure the lack of  these very same material and social resources, in which this is to start being calculated across 13 items, instead of the current nine items. These are going to be 7 household items and 6 personal items.

Minister Michael Falzon further listed the increase in pensions, where this year more than 93,000 pensioners benefitted from an increase of €5 per week. This was the sixth consecutive increase in pensions, and thus another electoral promise was carried out on our behalf, which positively impacted many thousands of persons.

The introduction of ‘tapering’ and ‘in-work benefit’ led to a step in the right direction, with many individuals deciding to enter the world of employment, instead of remaining on social benefits, as a result of which poverty has also decreased. Tapering came into existence during the year 2014, and up to and until August of the year 2021, there were 1018 persons who benefitted from this scheme. This number further has to be taken in a context where we still kept observing dwindling numbers of those individuals dependent on social benefits. In fact, during last July, these same numbers decreased to the lowest ever rate in history, where there were only 6043 individuals dependent on social benefits, and 435 individuals dependent on unemployment benefits overall.

Another positive factor is that 90% of beneficiaries have remained firmly rooted inside the world of employment.

In-Work Benefit 

Here one may note the extent of our investment in the people themselves. A monetary sum which started from a million euro in 2015, and increased upwards of €4,572,456 during 2020. From 1359 beneficiaries in 2015, these increased up to 5309 beneficiaries during the year 2020.

An additional investment was also carried out inside the In-Work Supplement, via the monetary sum of €1,067,250. This was part of the Government’s regeneration plan in June of 2020.

 Another positive factor is that 90% of beneficiaries have remained firmly rooted inside the world of employment.

In-Work Benefit 

Here one may note the extent of our investment in the people themselves. A monetary sum which started from a million euro in 2015, and increased upwards of €4,572,456 during 2020. From 1359 beneficiaries in 2015, these increased up to 5309 beneficiaries during the year 2020.

An additional investment was also carried out inside the In-Work Supplement, via the monetary sum of €1,067,250. This was part of the Government’s regeneration plan in June of 2020.