A few weeks back, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced that Malta's middle class is in for a pleasant surprise as the government is planning to announce the biggest tax cut in the country's history in this year's budget.

The motive behind such a measure, according to him, is to target the middle class to support it and encourage it, seeing it is so hard-working and motivated to improve. He alleges that most people nowadays feel they form part of the middle class. Still, he pledged, the lower class will not be sidelined.

A big tax cut there well may be, but does that simply improve the life of all those who make up Malta's middle class? So, while we're at it, how can we today define this middle class, if at all?

Inequality, a word used in conjunction with the poor during most of the post-war period, has taken on a broader meaning. In today's Malta, not only the poor but the middle class itself is in trouble.

The middle class, once the economic stratum of a clear majority of Maltese adults, has steadily contracted in the last two decades. The share of adults who live in middle-class households is continually falling, as it is reflected in an increase in the share who are in the lower-income tier.

According to a recent Eurobarometer survey, 56% of Maltese identify themselves as middle class, while 14% see themselves as lower-middle class, a section that may be equated to the self-employed who are still not as financially secure as middle-class employees. Just one in 20 people in Malta will identify as upper-middle, but none associate with the higher or upper class.

The percentage of those who feel that they belong to the middle class has decreased by 13 points, the percentage of those identifying with the working class has increased by 11 points, while there was no increase in those identifying with the upper-middle class, which remains at a low of 5%.

Yet, data from Malta's National Statistics Office (NSO) last year laid bare the stark reality of persistent poverty and rising wealth inequality, despite the government's boasts of record economic growth. According to a 2023 Survey on Income and Living Conditions, over 105,000 people in Malta, nearly one in five, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion last year. This includes 88,462 individuals, or 16.6% of the population, living below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold of just €11,364.

What perhaps was most shocking was that over a fifth (22%) of those at risk of poverty were children aged under 18.

With such a background, the Maltese 'middle class' is an outdated misnomer. It is now a minimum standard of living. This fact, coupled with the wealth gap, is a huge factor feeding the discontent driving our current politics.

It is very expensive to be poor in Malta. This paradox negatively impacts the lives of the ever-increasing number of people in this country who fall under the government's official poverty line and the many more who are one pay cheque, serious illness or other unforeseen challenge away from joining that group.

Because they live in a state of economic precarity and day-to-day survival mode, middle-class people and people at poverty risk are unable to accrue wealth, income and other resources to pass down to their children, which in turn deprives future generations of life opportunities.

Not long ago, Malta's middle-class families were able to own their own home (although with a bank loan), own a car (although with a loan or lease), send their kids to private schools or a college abroad (although with student loans or scholarships), save for their retirement and have enough disposable savings to afford certain luxuries like dining out and vacations.

We cannot continue defining poverty solely as a measure of income. Certainly, you're "poor" if your household's income falls below a certain level for any given year. Yet, we should all agree that's way too narrow, as you can't reduce the experience of poverty to a euro figure.

Malta's 'middle class' is being denied a chance to fulfil its potential because it lacks access to the opportunities that money can buy. It means the inability to meet your basic needs: food, housing, and health care, or having access only to substandard versions of what's available to everyone else. It means the inability to develop your human potential because of the structural limitations around you.

The majority of Maltese are today living a daily life of surviving versus thriving, which I think is a pretty good description of what it means to be middle class, in other words, poor.

What once was the proud distinction of the nation is now split up between the rich and the super-rich on one side and everyone else, or the poor middle class on the other side. In this sense, the middle class in our country hasn't disappeared yet.

But, then again, what does it mean to be middle class? Being middle class is less tied to your income and more tied to what freedoms that income allows. Do you have time to look up political candidates and make an educated vote? Do you have time to read the news? Someone who works three jobs and is still below the poverty line probably does not.

At the rate we're going, Malta's middle class will continue to be relegated, year after year, and is on the brink of extinction.