Budget 2017 fails the caritas test on poverty despite Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his ministers' assertions that the measures introduced are targeted towards the most vulnerable, according to a Nationalist Party statement. 

The  statement said that the detailed and professional study of Caritas shows how families with two children  and  single parent working on minimum wage needs  € 11,446 a year to live a decent life - € 800 more than it needed three years ago. Despite this, the budget  will provide much less to these people. 

It was no wonder, the statement claimed, that the number of people at risk of poverty has increased by 6,000 from 88,000 to 94 250 with the last three and a half years, with the majority of which being the elderly.

The Nationalist Party also claimed that Joseph Muscat continues to mislead pensioners are that there will be an increase of € 4 per pension. This was lie, they said,  because this measure will benefit only 2,500 pensioners and that the increase is actually € 2.25  since the rest is following the cost of living adjustment. 

The party reiterated its stance that this was a cosmetic budget which saw the government copy and paste the budget of previous years.