A pledge to introduce a special mechanism to help low-income residents with the rising cost of living seems to have been quietly shelved with no further information, ADPD has noted.

The proposal was made last October by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana, in a public meeting held weeks before the 2022 budget speech.

Caruana had said at the time that he would be using the speech to announce a new mechanism that would kick in for low-income earners in periods of high inflation.

But no details of that mechanism were unveiled during the budget speech, and despite inflation hitting generational highs in the ensuing months, talk of the mechanism has quietened down.

Caruana told Times of Malta in February that talks with social partners about the mechanism remained ongoing and that he hoped to be in a position to unveil it during this year’s budget speech.

In a statement on Saturday, ADPD said that the government seemed to have forgotten about protecting the so-called working poor from rising cost-of-living impacts.

“Government and the Finance Minister speak about ‘studies’ that never lead to any action,” said the green party’s chairperson Carmel Cacopardo.

The ADPD has long called for a revision of the basket of goods which is used to calculate inflation, and on Saturday it reiterated that call.

It noted that a Caritas study had concluded that a family needs an annual income of at least €14,000 a year to satisfy its basic needs.

Apart from revising the basket of goods used to measure inflation, ADPD also believes that the cost-of-living-adjustment given to workers should be paid twice a year, in July and January, to minimise the impact of the increase in cost-of-living on vulnerable citizens.

“The lack of just distribution of wealth remains, and government is failing to implement the necessary measures for this fair distribution to take place,” concluded Cacopardo.