Electricity and wheat subsidies have not had their intended effect as prices kept rising, ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci said on Saturday.

Addressing a news conference near the Qormi open market, she referred to the price hike on milk announced on Friday and said that notwithstanding the budget measures, minimum wage earners were still far from a living wage to enable them to have a decent standard of living.

Deputy secretary general Melissa Bagley spoke about the cost of living Adjustment Contribution (COLA) of €12.82 per week and said that the basket of items on which this is calculated was not realistic as this had been set up 30 years ago.

For this reason, ADPD was campaigning for this basket of items to be updated regularly.

Bagley said the COLA should also be given every six months rather than every year, particularly when the cost of living was continually increasing at a fast pace.

Gauci said the government is aware of the present inefficiency of how the increase in cost of living is calculated.

This was so much so, that it distributed additional cash benefits in an attempt to combat the rising cost of living.

“This is nothing less than an admission that the adjustments being granted are peanuts, in the hope to appear generous, however the less fortunate keep being treated as a beggar, dependent on the government's charity,” Gauci said.

She said that although the rise in the minimum wage was positive, an increase of €18 over four years was not enough.

Gauci noted that according to a Caritas study in 2020, a family of two adults and two children needed €13,947 to enjoy a decent standard of living. This translated into an increase of 40% on the minimum wage - €78 per week.