Malta increased its social protection spending by 28.6% in 2020, or an additional €582.8 million from 2019, according to new data released by the National Statistics Office.
The report tracks Malta’s social protection spending which provides aid to specific vulnerable groups, namely for sickness, disability, old age, survivors, families and children, unemployment, housing and social exclusion.
Specifically, in 2020, the NSO highlighted, the Maltese Government implemented various additional support measures to couch the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
By the end of 2020, Malta’s social spending rose to €2.6 billion which is equivalent to 20.1% of the country’s gross domestic product.
Pandemic employment support measures were the primary cause of the substantial rise in social expenditure, which in total amounted to €410.2 million. Some 96.5% of this figure went to covering worker’s basic wages under the wage supplement scheme, with expenditure under the hospitals and other health care facilities scheme rose also rising by €80.8 million.
Over and above spending on COVID-19 measures, an increase of €52.9 million was reported under the social security contributory benefits scheme, with 12 of Malta’s 19 social protection schemes registering a rise in expenditure in 2020.
Benefits for old age (€933.4 million), healthcare (€828.1 million) and unemployment (€438 million) accounted for 83.9% of the total social protection spend.
In 2019, €22.9million of €2 billion were recouped through social taxes. The majority (52.3%) of taxation was reported under the social security contributory benefits scheme.
In 2020, some 97,070 people were receiving a pension, with the majority (56.4%) being men. The largest share of recipients, some 73,044 people, received old age pensions.
In total, 33% of the population, or roughly 170,259 people, received at least one type of social security benefit in 2020, with women amounting to 55.8% of total beneficiaries.
When looking at benefits at a local level, Floriana was the town with the largest proportion of people receiving social benefits, with 448 per 1,000 people in receipt of some kind of benefit. The lowest share was recorded in Swieqi, where 164 per 1000 people receive benefits.
The sector with the highest number of recipients is old age benefits, with 71,386, people or 138 per 1,000 beneficiaries. The sector with the lowest number of beneficiaries in 2020 was unemployment benefits, with only 1.6% of the population registered to receive them.
In 2020, there was the equivalent of 9.4% of the population receiving a family benefit, 6.9% an illness benefit, 4.6% a social exclusion benefit and 1.8% a disability benefit.
On average, Maltese beneficiaries of social spending received some €6,032 in income in 2020.