Kurt Sansone
Targeting the vulnerable?
Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi
Government has announced a drive to review the benefits for single mothers. But is it likely to yield substantial cost savings or could it threaten the already poor standard of living of this vulnerable group?
There are more than 8,000 single parent households but only 2,250 individuals receive social assistance, sharing between them just over €8 million in single parent benefits.
Despite the widespread impression that there are many single parents on welfare, official statistics show otherwise, and the number of people on social assistance is a mere half percentage point of the country's total population.
The €8 million in welfare payments to single parents pale in insignificance when compared with the €21 million the country is expected to have paid in student stipends by the end of the year, or the €100 million the government expects to forego in fines and interest because of the latest income tax amnesty.
When the finance minister earlier this week said the government would be reviewing social benefits, singling out single mothers, he did not quantify the savings expected to be made from the exercise.
Figures presented to parliament by the social policy minister last year showed that there were 8,187 single parent households, but these included single unmarried parents, separated people, widows and divorced individuals.
The statistics showed that a total of 11,689 children lived with a single parent. The overwhelming majority of them, 10,104, shared a home with their mother.
However, the ministry had also indicated in another parliamentary reply the number of people receiving the benefit for single parents broken down per town or village.
It transpires that the largest number of single parents can be found in the southern harbour area, particularly Cottonera, Valletta, Xgħajra, Floriana and Marsa.
However, despite the concentration of single parents on welfare that live in this region, they still amount to less than one per cent of the population for the district.
An exercise carried out by The Sunday Times shows that a single parent with two children, living in a rented house, would be entitled to €103 per week.
However, if the single parent is unmarried and lives with another family, the assistance is reduced by 25 per cent and the rent allowance of €1.16 per week is deducted.
A single parent can earn up to €48.12 per week and still receive the full allowance. However, a 2007 study entitled 'Lone Mothers on Benefits: Their Work Aspirations and Experiences', conducted by the Employment and Training Corporation, found that many single parents with a low level of education preferred not to work because the benefits provided them with security, which a job did not.
Most single mothers interviewed for the study did not expect to earn much more than they received in benefits, and insisted it was still not enough to cater for any new expenses they incurred for childcare because of their new job.
The European Commission has designated 2010 as the European Year for Combating, Poverty and Social Exclusion and one of the vulnerable groups identified as being at risk of poverty is single parent households.
Government's national report, 'Strategies for Social Protection and Social Inclusion 2008-2010', among others identifies children in single parent households as being at greater risk of poverty.
The report also says allowances to these families should seek to "adequately sustain" them while providing an incentive so beneficiaries participate further in the economy.
As expected, the finance minister's declaration last week drew diverse reactions.
While applauded by many for cracking down on abuse, the government also received flak for targeting this vulnerable group. Alternattiva Demokratika criticised government for targeting single mothers.
Social Affairs spokesman Michael Briguglio insisted that making single mothers "scapegoats for government austerity measures, will only help increase poverty, social exclusion and social stigma".
Income for single parents
A single mother with two children receiving the benefit for single parents and living in a rented place receives a weekly payment of €103.21. On a yearly basis, including a six-monthly bonus of €135.10, a single parent would be receiving €5,637 per year in social assistance.
This excludes children's allowance, which they would be entitled to in any case.
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w.scicluna
Sep 20th 2009, 23:15
Vulnerable group my foot! Its easy to list the child as having an ''unknown father'' and then this phantom father is living with them. Who pays for their comforts? US THE TAXPAYERS! As the system works right now, its actually beneficial to register as a single mother. So the hard working people who do everything right and have children in decency and marriage have to smile and fork out hard earned cash to these abusers. NO MORE I SAY! They should be made to face the music once and for all!
P Borg
Sep 20th 2009, 18:48
Given the comments here, then perhaps all those thousands of people who choose to pursue their 'follies' by drinking/smoking/eating the wrong kind of foods should not be given FREE health services when they end up with a multitude of lifestyle related illnesses: obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, liver problems, certain cancers etc. Now why should tax payers pay for these members of our society.I mean if we're willing to throw stones at single parents then let's throw stones at all these too.It's a very dangerous path to take & is in total contrast to what an inclusive &socially supportive society is all about...ahhh but of course we Maltese are only Christians when we go to Sunday Mass to show off our expensive car/jewels/clothing-very very sad indeed! Where is our sense of solidarity? Shame on T.Fenech for this - now he defends himself by saying that he wants to weed out the abusers..wow just like our courts weeded out those that stole thousands in the VAT dept scam.They got away with murder. But NO single parents are the real abusers of our tax money aren't they? Never mind the thousands that got stolen by those involved in the VAT scandal.
malcolm seychell
Sep 20th 2009, 17:33
Minimum Wage in Malta is about eur 7500. 5637 euro for doing nothing is too much.
Anthony Falzon
Sep 20th 2009, 16:18
What a life, just go have a hell of a good time with as many lovers as you like, you don't have to know who the father is, not even his name, and woooooops you have security for the rest of your life.
J. Borg
Sep 20th 2009, 16:01
I don't think that genuine single parents have anything to lose because of this initiative. The one's that are abusing the system are the ones that should worry. It should have been done long time ago. A typical case is a mother that lists her child as having an "unknown father". How is this possible unless she is the victim of sexual abuse or a prostitute? Sorry for being blunt but that's how it is. Victims of abuse and other genuine cases such as widows deserve help. Prostitutes are not in a position to raise a child properly let alone receive government assistance for it. The rest are scammers.
P. Borg
Sep 20th 2009, 14:43
Thank You Kurt for a very good piece or work. Shame on the Minister to devise a scheme to intentionally drive into social exclusion and poverty the relatively low number of single parents struggling to raise their children and claiming benefits. Not sure whether the situation has changed but when over a decade ago I had queried single parent benefits entitlement, from the info given, I deduced that one has to be literally penniless and homeless in order to be eligible for some form of social benefits for single parents. All well and good to encourage single parents to get into the labour market but does the minister realize that by doing so he would be depriving the innocent children the much needed care from the parent? Childcare is extremely expensive and the minister cannot assume that the extended family can pitch in.
To Minister Fenech - why did you grant children's allowance to all and sundry including those parents driving luxurious cars and sending their offspring to private schooling? Ah obviously it was one of the desperate pre-election gimmicks that managed to scrape you back into power!!
I am utterly ashamed at our mediocre politics...
John Azzopardi
Sep 20th 2009, 12:34
Why not start some sort of a program to have single parents work, when say children reach school age and have their schedule tied to when children start and end school. This way, you are giving single parents the opportunity to so work and not be accused of living on taxpayers back. Also, parents should be teaching their children - man and women, how to be responsilbe. As a taxpayers, I do not want my tax money to go on funding this kind of madness. today, we have 25 % of all births from single mothers. this kind of number in a developed nation is not acceptable. Instead of going forward we went backward. Is this what the family has became today. I blame the parents mostly on this kind of trend because they are not teaching their children responsiblity. If an adult - over 18/21 chooses to become pregnat, then it's her and her significant other responsibility to take care of their child, including paying for their care.
GiovDeMartino
Sep 20th 2009, 11:18
Single mothers become mothers OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL. The problem is theirs and theirs alone. I DO NOT WANT to susidize their follies. I do not think that the mother in the picture regrets her past folly.