Last year I wrote a letter, Family budget: not for childless couples (TMID, 31 October, 2007). This year I decided to resurrect it, with the difference that this time I am writing before the budget speech is delivered.

It seems that in Malta, in order to qualify as a “family”, a couple has to have at least one child, immaterial of whether or not they are married in the first place. So, if they are single parents or cohabiting with a partner, they benefit from social benefits as long as they have a child.

On the other hand, childless married couples are condemned. Although they pay taxes as others do, they have to fork out thousands of euros to try all possibilities to bear a child by medical means.

This is due to the unjust fact that their infertile conditions are not recognised by our health schemes, unlike many other medical conditions that are treated free of charge in our state hospitals.

Is our government aware about the high rates of infertility in Malta, possibly due to stress, pollution and pesticides?

To make matters worse, a woman with no children is doomed to work all her life at 40 hours a week. She can never interrupt work for a couple of months or work for some years on reduced hours. Either she has to work full-time or resign. And then they want to encourage more women to continue working!

But the crux of it all is that the more this poor woman continues to work, work and work against her will, without taking a reasonable break or without working on reduced hours, the more stress she will bring back home after a full day’s work, with the consequence of fewer chances of becoming pregnant.

Even when it comes to adoption; the local help received is indeed a pittance when set against all the hassles and the thousands of euros required for bringing a child from abroad.

C. Micallef

Fgura