Public spending on social security benefits was up by €15 million at the end of June when compared to 2018, new figures released by the National Statistics Office on Tuesday show.
Social security benefit expenditure ran up to €512 million during the first six months of 2019, 3 per cent higher than in 2018. A €15.2 million rise in contributory benefits spending was the catalyst for the increase, partially offset by a €0.2 million drop in non-contributory expenditure.
Contributory benefits outlay totalled €415.3 million, reflecting a 3.8% increase from 2018. This was due to a €13.1 million rise reported under pensions in respect of retirement, the result of a higher number of two-thirds pensioners, followed by increases recorded in contributory bonus (€1.5 million)
and pensions in respect of widowhood (€1 million).
Conversely, decreases in outlay were registered under pensions in respect of invalidity (€300,000) and other benefits (€100,000).
Non-contributory spending amounted to €96.7 million, which is 0.2 per cent lower than 2018. Total social assistance registered the biggest drop in expenditure of €3.1 million, while minor drops were reported in supplementary assistance (€300,000) and child allowance (€100,000).
In contrast, increased outlay was reported under disability pension/allowance (€1.5 million), old age pension (€1.3 million), in-work benefit (€0.4 million) and medical assistance (€100,000).
Between April and June, social security benefits outlay reached €282.3 million, 82.6 per cnet of which was spent on contributory benefits. This represented a €9.1 million rise from the €273.2 million recorded during the second quarter of 2018 and was the result of an €8.8 million increase in the contributory Pensions in respect of retirement.
Social security beneficiaries
During the first six months of 2019, the two-thirds pension registered the largest cohort of recipients at 49,770 persons, coupled with the biggest year-over-year rise of 1,957. On the other hand, the national minimum widows’ pension reported the largest drop in beneficiaries with 433 less persons reported than the corresponding period of 2018.
The largest share of non-contributory recipients was registered under children’s allowance (40,549).
This was despite a 1,489 drop in beneficiaries, the largest reported among the 23 active non-contributory benefits.
In contrast, in-work benefit recipients exhibited the largest increase of 626, rising from 3,497 in 2018 to 4,123 a year later. Quarter-wise was a similar story with the two-thirds pension (49,278) and children’s allowance (39,705) reporting the largest cohorts of contributory and non-contributory beneficiaries respectively.