ESPN Thematic report on social investment Malta

Abstract

This report seeks to analyse whether recent social policies in Malta have followed the aspirations set out in the 2013 European Commission’s Social Investment Package (SIP). Social investment policies are understood as policies intended to improve human and social capital and to support a person’s participation in economic and social life, as well as pre-emptive policies to confront new social risks and poverty. Successive administrations in Malta have very rarely referred specifically to social investment as such, but the redistributive mechanism of Maltese social policy, taken as a whole, can be said to be based on the improvement of human and social capital to ease individuals from their current situations, at various stages of their life-cycle, and to improve their chances of less stressful situations later on in life. The measures which have been developed over the years in stages are complementary to each other, and they are administered as such. Fiscal consolidation in Malta has been and still is a matter of concern to the planners, but since the recession did not adversely affect Malta as badly as it affected other member states, social policies in Malta continued to be improved and new services developed. In recent years, there has been an upsurge in the development of personal social services, but this was not implemented at the cost of reductions in purely financial support or assistance. Indeed in a number of instances entitlements were increased rather than decreased as happened elsewhere. The social policy budget, incorporating the segment spent on free medical services, has continued to grow, even though voices are often heard questioning its long term sustainability. But the social concern and care component remains at the core of policy in Malta. Although the importance of transfers is not underestimated, recent emphasis has been on training, development, workability and achievement. This does not mean that levels suffice to meet demand in all sectors. The increases in the at-risk-of-poverty among children, and to a slightly less extent among pensioners, are a matter of serious concern. Jobless households have not increased tremendously, but the figures show that when they exist, the multiplier effect on children’s plight is evident. Similarly, the general increase in incomes has adversely affected those segments of the population whose income, though guaranteed by statutory minimum income levels, has not increased in the same proportion. The same can be said of pensioners who are affected by the same mechanism of less than proportional increases and a nominally two-thirds pension that is capped well below current salary levels. Despite these difficulties however, it can be safely stated that Maltese social policies seek to improve human and social capital not only through financial provisions to alleviate need, but also through the creation of opportunities that provide children, mothers and especially the unemployed with routes for self-development and improvement. Some of these initiatives will not have immediate effects, but because they are essentially educational, are bound to have far more lasting effect than if they had simply been cash transfers.