Low-income earners will get a new, additional cost of living adjustment (COLA) raise in the upcoming budget in October, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana told reporters on Tuesday.

He did not specify its amount but confirmed work on its mechanism has been finalised and it will be given to those who are most in need over and above the traditional yearly COLA, which this year is expected to rise to around €10 weekly.

Caruana had first hinted at the introduction of the new formula for low-income earners a few weeks before last year's budget.

He had stressed that this would not be compensation for everyone. Some people were well off, but others were not, and social justice demanded that it should be the weaker members who should be helped apart from the normal cost of living wage increases.

Since then, the government has been almost entirely silent about the measure and last week ADPD suggested the idea may have been quietly shelved, arguing the government seemed to have forgotten about protecting the so-called working poor from rising cost-of-living impacts.

On Tuesday, Caruana said he has been reading the headlines about the government's 'silence' on the progress of this measure, some of which, he said, suggested he forgot what he had promised last year.

"Rest assured that what I promised last year will be implemented this year," he said.

"The work on the second mechanism has been concluded. We have the numbers and we know how it's going to work."

He said he will be communicating the details to stakeholders and will announce it and put it into effect in the upcoming budget.

He also said this year's exceptionally high COLA must be paid in full to all employees, as has always been the case, shutting down employers' concerns over how the measure might exacerbate their running costs.