The announced increase to the National Minimum Pension will come into effect this week, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced this morning. The rise, he said, was the first step towards a decent minimum pension.

The government had announced in this year’s budget that the national minimum pension would rise to €7,280 a year, or €140 a week. This means that those over 75 and currently on the minimum pension will see their weekly income rise by €8.92 a week.

Dr Muscat was addressing a seminar on pensions held at the General Workers’ Union building in Valletta.

He said the country voted for change three years ago and change is what it was experiencing. The change people voted for included a change in the way things were done and thought of, including the pensions reform and tackling poverty. “For the nationalist government poverty was only a perception. For us it is reality.” Dr Muscat said that much more needed to be done but the government was addressing the issue of poverty step by step. The problem, he said, affected children and the elderly more than anyone else.

The government had first tackled the issue of children living in poverty. It gave an allowance to parents coming from poor backgrounds, which was pegged to their children’s’ school attendance. Another allowance will be given this year. “We believe that the best way is to address the problem at home. The solution is not providing underprivileged children with their school lunch. That would only make things worse and increase the stigma.”

In the case of elderly people the government had widened the €300 yearly grant to cover a larger number of people. Lower energy tariffs also helped the elderly, many of who are saving up to 35% on their energy bills. The government was also helping businesses flourish, which translated into lower product prices, and the elderly are receiving the full COLA amount. A number of other measures have also addressed longstanding anomalies, including in the pensions of former dockyard workers.

This week’s rise would reach an unprecedented number of people, Dr Muscat said, and was the first minimum pension increase in 25 years. All this was possible because the economy was strong and the government was reaping what it had sown a few years before.

The free childcare scheme, he said, was part of the solution. Thousands of women had found employment and were, as such, off benefits and now paying social security contributions, which in turn paid for pensions.

He also pointed out that pensions in Malta were increasing whereas the story was different in most other countries. Dr Muscat also shot down claims of a “public sector wage freeze,” insisting that salaries had increased substantially during the current legislature.

He also spoke about the Home Carers pilot project which, he said, was close to his heart. More than 300 applications have been received in the first week since the scheme opened.

GWU Secretary General Josef Bugeja said the union had come up with several initiatives that ensured that elderly people lived a decent life. Its proposals were not only financial. Some of them, like the day care centre proposal, dealt with other forms of poverty that the elderly could face, such as solitude.

The response to the House Carers initiative, he said, showed that elderly people wanted to hold on to their lifestyles, even if with a little help.