The abuse of delayed subsidies

The general election is now a distant memory so ministers have been recently talking about abuse and the need to root it out. However, sometimes we do things meant to root out abuse that inadvertently can actually help abusers and punish those who are genuinely in need of help. One glaring example is a fairly recent decision to pay rent subsidy six months in arrears. Rent subsidy is meant to be for people who do not earn enough to pay market rents in Malta.

This article is therefore dedicated to Malta's tiny army of genuinely poor people who do exist but have a very quiet voice. There are certainly not enough of them to constitute a voting lobby come election time so they are very unimportant indeed. It is really the NGOs, which come across them and try to pick up the pieces. They know, but can't understand why, that when they find some place for a young homeless person to rent this person would not be able to get the rent subsidy for six months. What use is that to someone who is really homeless? Why pay six months in arrears? If you are genuinely poor you can't afford that. Isn't it more likely that it is somebody who doesn't really need such help who can afford to wait for six months? There are people who have nothing.

It's not just immigrants who arrive with no possessions. Yet, immigrants have to be housed and fed and rightly so. So why isn't there a statutory responsibility to house, feed, clothe and provide training and jobs for Malta's own home-grown homeless?

These include young people who walk out of home after years of abuse. Women who leave abusive partners. Young boys and girls who have allegedly suffered in Church homes. People who went to Mount Carmel Hospital because there was nowhere appropriate for them to go. Mothers who are dumped by their partners or families. Children who have been trained to be prostitutes by their own mums. Young people who were weaned on drugs by their own drug-addicted parents. They really have nothing but the clothes on their back when they arrive at certain of our hostels provided by the voluntary sector.

Why and how can they wait six months to get the subsidy to help cover some rent?

And, besides these victims of what can be a very cruel society indeed, we also have rent subsidy to help those who are low paid. Anyone who can't afford to buy or does not want to buy property has to rent. And if you are on a low wage or on social benefits you cannot afford Malta's new rents. That is indisputable.

Rent subsidy is a real lifeline to those who genuinely need it and if you can do without it for six months you probably don't need it as much as the cases I have just outlined!

However, we all know that abuse exists everywhere, from the lowest income groups to those who meant to be practising what they preach, as the MPs expenses abuse scandal in the UK has shown all too clearly. The culture of abuse is encouraged, come election time, when suddenly political parties in government bend over backwards to get people jobs, housing and the like. I hope we would not try to give the impression that is not the case.

Meanwhile, those who have nowhere to live, whose votes don't count and who don't benefit from EU regulations insisting certain provisions must be made and manage to find some private sector hovel have to wait for six months to get a rent subsidy. What will they do? Go to a loan shark? Sleep with the landlord? Sell their bodies or their children's? Or perhaps they are lucky and some kind soul lends them the money or helps them out. Help for the homeless shouldn't depend on luck and contacts. It should be there for those who are genuine.

When you are genuinely homeless and have no cash, help can't arrive six months in arrears.

Ms Micallef was chairman of the Malta Housing Authority and is now a director of a young people's charity in London.

m_micallef@sky.com