Malta Enterprise is reviewing more than 1,500 grants of the COVID-19 wage supplement for potential abuse.

“As part of an ongoing exercise throughout the scheme, Malta Enterprise kept reviewing applications... to stop any abuse wherever beneficiaries were found to be ineligible,” a spokesperson said.

“Following the closing of the grants scheme... Malta Enterprise continued to review the assistance granted and make sure that all beneficiaries who took a wage supplement were effectively entitled to it.”

The agency “is reviewing 1,550 cases”, the spokesperson confirmed.

During the course of the COVID-19 wage supplement scheme, over €800 million was distributed to approximately 120,000 employees by the agency. 

Earlier this month, a claimant told Times of Malta that they had been contacted by Malta Enterprise and ordered to repay the wage supplement which they had received throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

In total, they were paid over €4,000.

Describing a feeling of hopelessness, the 25-year-old ruled out appealing the decision, saying it was a “lost battle already”.

The claimant, who not wish to be named, explained they had received the supplement for their part-time work as a self-employed musician.

After contacting Malta Enterprise, they were informed they had been found to be ineligible due to also having a full-time job while claiming the supplement.

While stressing they understood that the supplement had to be repaid, they questioned why they had been found eligible at the time of their initial application, describing the demand for the repayment now as “quite unjust” considering the intervening time.

They have already spent the money granted to them, they confirmed.

When asked what repayment options would be available to those requested to return the supplement, Malta Enterprise said that payment could be made over two years in monthly instalments.

“The reasons for the recovery of funds vary,” Malta Enterprise explained when asked if the changes in eligibility were due to an error on behalf of the agency or another factor.

“Malta Enterprise administered the scheme... according to information which is submitted by the beneficiaries and independently verified through other available sources such as Jobsplus, NSO and VAT data.

“Some data was not immediately available, however, or changed throughout the period during the administration of the scheme,” the spokesperson said.

The National Statistics Office later clarified that although aggregated official statistics may have been used by Malta Enterprise, the NSO did not share any personally identifiable information with the agency. 

"One of the guarantees the office always gives to its respondents is that the NSO does not share any confidential information with anyone," it stressed.