Retirement is the dream of many who work hard for almost five decades in their lives. However, the golden years that should follow a lifelong commitment to work is no nirvana for thousands of older people who risk being caught in the poverty trap.
The Implementation and Evaluation Report (2017-2019) of the National Strategy for Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion shows some encouraging trends. A 4.5 per cent decline in the proportion of persons at risk of poverty and social exclusion from 2013 to 2019 is promising.
Similarly, the number of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion has fallen from 33 per cent in 2013 to 24 per cent in 2019. This is a significant improvement but still far too high to instil optimism for the future well-being of our society.
The fly in the ointment of this evaluation report is the proportion of pensioners living in poverty in Malta, which has increased year on year, reaching 20 per cent of the over 65s in 2019. This proportion is much higher than the EU average of around 18 per cent and is a particular problem for older women.
For an administration that prides itself in promoting the rights of minorities and combatting gender bias, the way that the elderly are treated is an emblem of shame.
The report gives a clinical, if insensitive, label to the distress of retired women. It calls it the ‘genders pensions gap’.
Many of today’s pensioners who have a low income fall into diverse groups. There are those seniors with less education, those with intermittent work histories and low wages and older women with no or low pensions who rely on their husband’s sole pension.
There is nothing that cannot be fixed in this inequitable system that is loaded against one of the most vulnerable sections of our society. Various administrations have found ways to ensure that, for instance, the members of the judiciary and retired parliamentarians enjoy their golden years of retirement free from financial deprivation. The elderly struggling to fight off poverty deserve the same treatment.
Various studies have shown that low income is associated with experiences of low self-esteem, loneliness and social isolation among the elderly.
Low income in retirement is also one of the causes of nutritional risk, poorer health outcomes and lower quality of life among the elderly.
For many pensioners on a low income, their financial restraints also mean that they often have to put up with living in homes not adapted to the needs of older people.
This limits their mobility and opportunities to socialise.
Few living in retirement engage in political activism.
The voice of the elderly is feeble. They have no strong lobby groups to ensure that their needs feature prominently in the government’s list of priorities.
The grey-haired brigade are no dinosaurs. They graduated from the university of life without having access to Google and Wikipedia; laid the foundations of today’s prosperous society; worked hard to ensure that their children had a better life than themselves; and made our small country an independent nation.
Our politicians need to recalibrate their social compass to ensure that the weakest in our society, namely children, persons with special needs and older people, are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.
The state is clearly failing the more financially vulnerable among our older generations. In many ways, the social deficit in our society is growing unacceptably.