Various business lobbies have had most of their requests for support from the government addressed in the economic recovery mini-budget. This is a positive development as it ensures that there are fewer pressures on employers to discharge workers.

There are, however, sectors of society whose voice is feebler. They risk being caught in a poverty trap that condemns them to a depressing struggle to survive.

It must be acknowledged that no government can ever have enough resources to eliminate poverty, especially in the present circumstances where so much economic uncertainty prevails.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to increase the number of deprived people and make it more difficult for those who are already struggling.

International organisations like the IMF and the OECD are predicting that unemployment will continue to increase. Some people may never be able to return to the workplace. The time has now come for the government to place a stronger focus on those who will not benefit much from the €900 million injection in the economy announced in the mini-budget.

Defining those who are considered as deprived is not all that difficult. Inability to pay essential utility bills, consume healthy food and ensure that children receive the educational support they need are some of the criteria that characterise deprivation. For these people, the €100 vouchers would probably have been much more valuable had they been able to spend them on staple foodstuffs and other essential items.

In the post-budget debate, government and opposition parliamentarians resorted to quoting statistics to prove or disprove the impact of poverty on our society. Malta’s rate of people in severe material deprivation is generally lower than the EU average. But while that applies also to the 23 per cent rate of children at risk of poverty and social exclusion, it is considerably higher than that of the more advanced EU countries.

Malta needs more determination to address the risks of deprivation to ensure that more of our children escape the poverty trap which risks ensnaring them forever. 

One weakness of the government’s recovery plan is the insufficient support given to those who have already lost their job as a result of the economic crisis. Among the most vulnerable groups and the most affected are the youngest people and single parents.

The pre-crisis employment levels may have given the impression that Malta had achieved full employment.

But employment statistics hide the fact that many of the employed had low-paid and often precarious jobs.

Many others, including migrants, work in the underground economy with no national insurance protection.

These too are now part of Maltese society, and the government needs to be more creative to ensure that they integrate as early as possible in the community.

The EU acknowledges the need to address the risks being faced by those worst affected by the economic crisis.

The updating of the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived to ensure that it supports the weakest in society to escape the poverty trap will hopefully be completed as early as possible.

In the longer term, EU member states need to discuss whether the minimum income schemes that prevail today are sufficient to underpin the economic viability of the working poor. The gig economy has probably helped to mitigate the effects of the lockdown on many families in Europe and in Malta.

We now need to start asking whether the employment conditions of the working poor are acceptable in a fair society.