During these Christmas festivities, one cannot help noticing the continual rise in prices, even though electricity and wheat are subsidised. These subsidies have not had the intended effects on consumers, as prices have kept rising, with detrimental effects on the quality of life and living standards, ADPD leader Sandra Gauci said Saturday.
Just this week, a price hike in the price of milk was announced. Notwithstanding last budget’s measures, we are still far off from minimum wage earners to have a living wage with which to have a decent standard of living, she added.
Gauci said that the government is aware of the present inefficiency of how the increase in cost of living is calculated. So much so, that the government is distributing additional cash benefits in an attempt to combat the rising cost of living. This is nothing less than an admission that the adjustments being granted are peanuts, in the hope to appear generous, however the less fortunate keep being treated as a beggar, dependent on the government's charity.
Regarding the rise in the minimum wage, which was announced during the last budget, this was a good decision, however when seeing the figures, this is insufficient. An increase of €18 over a period of 4 years is not enough. These figures contradict the studies conducted by Caritas in 2020, which found that a family of two adults and two children needs €13,947 to enjoy a decent standard of living. This translates into an increase of 40% on the minimum wage, meaning an increase of €78 per week. This should have been the increase which wage earners were supposed to be given long ago, but has been left in a quandary, having had to accept the crumbs, in a country which boasts of rising GDP and an improving economy”, Gauci said.
She reiterated that it was all a numbers game. People are not numbers and the facts show that we have over 100,000 people at risk of poverty. And in January many are worried about the effect of the 'Fit for 55' on goods and though the government had already known about this measure for at least three years it did not plan for its impacts especially when as an island we practically import everything.
If we really want to help the poor, there is a need for a policy with bold, targeted and serious decisions that really put the poor at the centre of decisions and aimed at making the life of those living on the minimum wage a decent life. We should not continue to increase the working poor who are deprived of their dignity to live in a dignified way. This poverty which is always growing and is being ignored shows how these measures are only cosmetic and do not go to the root of the problem to reduce poverty. There is a need for a change in the mentality where people are no longer considered as numbers but as a precious resource especially in a country like Malta that lacks any natural resource, concluded Gauci.