The government's expenditure on social security benefits in the first half of the year was 8.4% higher than that of the same period last year.

According to national data, between January and June of this year, spending on social security benefits totalled €680.6 million.

Higher expenditure was reported for both contributory (€34.9 million) and non-contributory benefits (€17.6 million), the National Statistics Office said on Thursday.

In all, government spending on contributory benefits amounted to €548.5 million - a 6.8 per cent rise from 2022.

Retirement pensions recorded the largest increase (€19.9 million), as a result of 1,134 more people qualifying for the two-thirds pension.

Further increases were registered under contributory bonus (€8.4 million) and widows' pension (€6.7 million). 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.