Elderly at risk of poverty
The item More Say They Are Poor (February 9) on the risk-of-poverty rate missed some important points. I fully concur with Lino Spiteri’s article Unable To Come In From The Cold (February 12) and would like to add some more points to substantiate that...
The item More Say They Are Poor (February 9) on the risk-of-poverty rate missed some important points. I fully concur with Lino Spiteri’s article Unable To Come In From The Cold (February 12) and would like to add some more points to substantiate that the risk of poverty is increasing.
The first point of relevance is that the median income (which is lower than the average income) was lower in 2010 (€6,275) than it was in 2009 (€6,392). If the calculations of the risk of poverty were effected on the basis of the 2009 amount, then this rate would have increased to 16.3 per cent and not to15.5 per cent.
The second point is of a micro nature and uses the data in relation to the elderly over 65 years. The data is as follows:
Total EU Malta
population 16.4 15.5
Over 65 15.9 18.8
It is evident that there is a discrepancy in the manner that wealth is being distributed as in Malta persons over 65 years are 3.3 percentage points at higher risk of poverty than the average for the whole population.
On the other hand, on average, in the European Union the over 65s have a lower risk-of-poverty rate, by 0.05 percentage points, than the general population.