Minister warns of social service crisis

At the going rate, Malta's ratio of workers for every pensioner will soon go down from four, as it is now, to just two, Social Policy Minister John Dalli warned, making a case for urgent action on the matter.

The figures imply that to sustain the country's present standard of living, the government would have to double taxation or take pre-emptive measures as soon as possible to guarantee the sustainability of the health service, he said.

He was speaking at a seminar on the sustainability of social services organised by the General Workers Union.

The statement comes in the wake of a call Mr Dalli made in Parliament some two weeks ago for a debate on the introduction of a public health insurance, which would be sustained through a ring-fenced fund paid for through a part of the social security contributions.

At the seminar, Mr Dalli stressed again the rising costs of health care, pointing out that the 2009 budget is projecting a staggering spend of €1.25 billion for health services - a third of the total budget.

But turning again to the problem of balancing out the ratio of workers to pensioners, he mentioned the rate of working women - which stands at 37 per cent or 20 per cent lower than the European average - describing it as a waste of human resources.

He also pointed out that while the local birth rate stands at 1.3 per family, it should ideally be increased to 2.2 to sustain the services provided at the moment.

Closing the seminar the GWU's general secretary also harped on the problem of financing the health services, pointing out that when the VAT rate was increased from 15 to 18 per cent five years ago, the government had said that the rise would pay the health fund mentioned by Mr Dalli but this never happened.

At the time, in fact, Mr Dalli was finance minister but soon after moved on to the Foreign Ministry before his stint out of Cabinet prior to the last general election.

The Labour Party's spokesman for Social Development, Michael Farrugia, said he was prepared to support the government and the Social Services Department to curb abuse of social services.

However, he also pointed out that there were instances when people were not being treated well by the system. He used as an example the invalidity pension, saying that some people were being told that their applications have been turned down without being given an explanation.

He stressed that the government owed these people more information and the right to an appeal.

He emphasised that people on social benefits should be guaranteed a decent life which was not eroded by cost of living increases, pushing them closer to the poverty line.