You know that a general election is around the corner when the government starts showering us with gifts.

On Thursday, a jubilant Prime Minister announced that all workers will be receiving a €100 cheque in the mail, with elderly people getting double that amount.

This, Abela said, will be over and above the yearly tax refunds.

Abela seemed to suggest that this will be some form of ‘gift’ to the people of Malta, and the Labour Party described it as “an investment in the people,” but many quickly pointed out that we are being paid from taxpayer money, that the government’s money is our money.

Many have questioned how effective a one-time cheque will be to help struggling families cope with a drastic rise in the cost of living.

We believe that, instead of a one-off payment that smacks of a pre-electoral gimmick, the government should seriously address the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) mechanism to reflect today’s realities. The government has argued that it cannot control the international rise in prices, which is in itself an effect of the pandemic, but there are ways in which it can help families out, and dishing out cheques is not the best way to tackle the issue.

Perhaps the money should have been spent on increasing the minimum wage, or to introduce the minimum living wage that several unions and organisations have been calling on for years. This is, after all, a proposal that the Labour Party itself had mentioned a few years back.

While the government has boasted that the poverty numbers have decreased over the past couple of years, the numbers remain alarmingly high. Tens of thousands of Maltese families are still living below the poverty line, and the continued increase in the price of staple foodstuffs is hitting them even harder.

This problem requires a long-term fix, not a one-time €100 cheque.

On the other hand, it is good to see that the Covid wage supplement will remain “for as long as needed.” This form of assistance has indeed helped save thousands of jobs during the last two years of pandemic.

But one cannot take such an announcement at face value. Up until a few weeks ago, the government seemed reluctant to extend this scheme, which has already cost the government, or indeed the taxpayer, some €700 million.

We were told that businesses were going to receive temporary help, to adapt to the new reality of the pandemic and innovate. We were also told, perhaps not so directly, that the country cannot afford to continue the scheme.

The main unions, social partners and the Opposition had been calling for an extension of the scheme for months. Yet the government remained silent and would only confirm that the scheme would be extended until the end of January.

Now things have changed, and this was miraculously done a few weeks before the election.

One must ask: can we really afford this, or is this a pre-election gimmick to catch votes? Is this measure sustainable, or will it break the bank?

We truly hope that this is not the case.