Former president and social security minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca has called for a full review of how benefits are assessed after Times of Malta exposed a huge racket that allowed hundreds of people to cheat the system.
The ex-head of State and long-time Labour MP said the detail of the revelations destroyed trust, hurt those who most need help and were “a blow to the system of solidarity”.
She spoke out after revelations that ex-Labour MP Silvio Grixti helped hundreds of people get monthly severe disability benefits they were not entitled to through forged documents.
“It is also crucial that, if we want to rebuild trust in the system, then justice must be served and appropriate action is taken,” Coleiro Preca told Times of Malta.
She said it is encouraging that the ministry’s income support and compliance division (ISCD) detected suspicious transactions “but we need to go further”.
“We have to review the entire process of how assessments for social benefits are made and ensure that proper checks and balances are in place to deter any potential abuse,” she said.
We need to ensure information about all aspects of the process- Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca
“Correct information about eligibility criteria to access benefits should be widely disseminated and policies should be transparent and accountable. We need to ensure information about all aspects of the process, from policy development to the implementation level, are accessible to ensure an equitable, fair and just outcome.
Grixti on board
Coleiro Preca was family and social solidarity minister between 2013 and 2014 and, during her tenure, appointed Grixti to a medical board that was tasked with validating applications for social benefits. However, according to sources, the forging of documents appears to have started after he had stopped serving on the board.
The years-long racket saw people, often hailing from Labour strongholds, receive around €450 monthly, collectively defrauding millions in taxpayer money.
Following the revelations, the social policy ministry confirmed some 141 people have so far been ordered to return a total of €2.1 million in severe disability assistance benefits they were not entitled to.
But that figure is expected to climb even higher as the police continue to comb through all 761 applications awarded the benefit between 2019 and 2022.
Honest people who genuinely need social benefits now risk being perceived as abusers and fraudulent – Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca- Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca
Coleiro Preca, who served as head of State from 2014 to 2019 and now leads The Malta Trust Foundation, which helps support vulnerable people, said she was concerned about the impact on those who need the benefit.
“I am particularly worried about how vulnerable individuals, who are genuinely seeking social benefits to mitigate hardships emanating from sickness and other social conditions will be impacted due to this investigation,” she said.
“Unfortunately, those who are honest and genuinely in need of social benefits now risk being perceived as abusers and fraudulent, which will have a traumatising effect on them.”
Coleiro Preca urged the media to protect vulnerable individuals and their families as they delve deeper into the story and to ensure that, through reporting, they are “not discriminated against or made to feel like criminals”.
Dozens of claimants who benefitted from the racket have already been charged and more people are expected to be arraigned in the coming weeks and investigators are not excluding the possibility that the racket could have begun even before 2019.