Budget should assist elderly and poor - AD

Today's budget should provide extra assistance for elderly people to help them with the rising cost of living, Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) said.

AD called for tax refunds and national insurance to be paid as quickly as possible, adding that the government should also dedicate more resources to help willing senior citizens find work and improve their skills.

Describing the pension system as "rigid and inflexible", AD called on the government to make it more equitable so that it would no longer be based solely on income received while employed.

The party also called for an end to "bureaucratic hurdles" which it said only limited senior citizens' capacity to work, suggesting also that the tax on elderly part-time civil servants be reduced.

In a separate statement issued in reaction to the government's National Strategy for Social Protection and Inclusion for the next two years, AD chairman Arnold Cassola said that 2012 will be the European Union's year against poverty and that Malta "should take the opportunity to be a catalyst to combat poverty and enhance social inclusion".

AD said "the strategy should map out measures to tackle the needs of genuine single mothers, widows and widowers, aftercare services for former prisoners, which are crucial for combating crime and relapse, the homeless and other minorities like LGBT people who often suffer from discrimination".