Alternattiva Demokratika Zghazagh/ ADZ-Green Youth have expressed concern at the findings of the latest survey by the National Statistics Office on income and living conditions conducted in 2005. The poverty indicators emerging from the survey were nothing less than disturbing and should indeed be sending wake-up calls, it said.

It was a disquieting revelation that almost 15 per cent of all Maltese living in households fell below the poverty line in 2005, implying in numerical terms the figure of 59,315 people. ADZ-Green Youth said it considered these figures an alarming signal of a new hidden poverty, a malaise afflicting the social and economic well-being of Maltese society that could be easily and conveniently given the political cold-shoulder. The NSO survey had shed light onto some of the most disconcerting social realities existing in Malta, yet these “salient indicators” attracted little if any media limelight, much less critical assessment by the leading columnists in the print media.

ADZ said it believed benefits were essential and that these should be coupled with other types of welfare, such as the introduction of public childcare centres, more emphasis on education, training and up-skilling, a serious analysis on whether the minimum wage is sufficient, and government policy/regulation of loans offered by commercial banks for housing purposes.