In the first six months of 2017 a €56.6 million increase was recorded in social security benefits outlay, in comparison to the same period in 2016, the National Statistics Office said today.

The total expenditure amounted to €479.8 million during the first half of 2017, resulting in a 13.4% rise from the same period in 2016. A €53.4 million increase in contributory benefits outlay was the catalyst for the abovementioned rise in social security benefits expenditure.

Contributory benefits outlay totalled €383.5 million, a 16.2 per cent increase from the corresponding six months in 2016. The main reason for the rise in contributory expenditure was a €46.7 million increase registered under pensions in respect of retirement, following a double payment in June 2017.

Further increases were recorded by pensions in respect of widowhood (€6.1 million) and contributory bonus (€3.6 million). On the other hand, declines in outlay were registered under pensions in respect of invalidity (€2.2 million) and other benefits (€0.6 million).

In the first half of 2017 non-contributory outlay amounted to €96.3 million, 3.4 per cent higher than 2016. Increases in outlay were recorded in old age pension and disability pension/allowance (both €1.2 million), followed by supplementary assistance (€0.8 million), social assistance and in-work benefit (both €0.2 million).

Conversely, a decrease in outlay was reported under child allowance (€0.3 million) and non-contributory bonus (€0.1 million). Between April and June 2017 €271.4 million was spent by the government on social security benefits, 80.2 per cent of which covered contributory benefits. In comparison to the same quarter in 2016, expenditure on contributory benefits increased from €168.0 million to €217.6 million while non-contributory outlay also rose from €48.6 million to €53.8 million.

A €43.1 million rise in pensions in respect of retirement was the main reason for the increase in the former while the latter was caused by a positive growth of €2.5 million being registered under social assistance.

During the first half of 2017 the two-thirds pension contained the largest cohort of contributory beneficiaries (45,738), also recording the biggest rise in beneficiaries with 1,844 more recipients in comparison to the same six month period in 2016.

On the other hand, the sickness benefit and the unemployment benefit registered the largest declines in recipients with 429 and 374 less beneficiaries respectively (Table 2). By the end of June 2017, the majority of non-contributory recipients consisted of children's allowance (41,907), followed by supplementary assistance (24,028). The in-work benefit recorded the largest increase in beneficiaries with 1,045 more recipients while the biggest drop in recipients was reported by the unemployment assistance (1,544).

On a quarterly basis a similar picture was shown with two-thirds pensioners containing the largest share of contributory beneficiaries with 45,211 recipients and the biggest cohort of non-contributory recipients falling under childrens allowance (41,036).