Two adjustment processes to increase the pensions for 7,000 widows and 6,500 service pensioners have been concluded, with the former group to receive their dues this weekend while the latter group received them last week, Social Policy Minister Michael Falzon said Thursday.

Widow pensioners will gradually receive the full pension that their spouse would have received had they been alive, the minister said, adding that this is over and above the weekly increase of €15 announced in the budget.

With this year’s adjustment now complete, this gradual process has reached the halfway mark and in three years’ time will be concluded, Falzon said.

Furthermore, those widows who are younger than 61 are enjoying a tax exemption as of this year, as promised by the 2024 Budget, he said.

Falzon said that altogether, 6,500 service pensioners will receive an additional €200 to their pension, not to mention the €15 weekly increase.

Falzon said service pensioners who had been boarded-out and went for their service pension early, due to illness, will see the same adjustment to the commuted part of their pension 12 years after they started receiving the service pension and not on reaching 72 years of age.