The president of the Gozo Business Chamber has no reason to suspect anything untoward in the granting of invalidity pensions despite the fact that the five localities with the highest rates of boarded-out people are all Gozitan.

A study published last Thursday by the National Statistics Office confirmed the general impression that Gozo was the region with the highest rates of boarded-out individuals in 2000, 2004 and last year.

Joe Grech said the civil service was the biggest employer in Gozo, which meant most boarded-out individuals were not previously employed with the private sector.

"While it is wrong for able-bodied people to be declared boarded out, I cannot suspect any abuse of the system. I trust the board that certifies people for the invalidity pension carries out its work in a professional manner," he said when asked whether the phenomenon worried him.

Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono also seemed unconcerned by the statistics, directing The Times to the Social Policy Ministry.

"In view of the fact that applications for all social benefits are considered by the Department for Social Security, which department does not fall under the responsibility of the Ministry for Gozo, any questions or explanations should be sought from the department concerned," Ms Debono said when asked for an explanation of the phenomenon and whether she was concerned about it.

However, Labour Gozitan MP Justyne Caruana was less dismissive of the problem.

"It worries me. Things in Gozo are very bad and the whole situation is being underestimated. Whatever study is carried out stops at Mellieħa and the situation in Gozo is hardly given due attention, which means our problems are never studied and assessed," Dr Caruana said, insisting that whenever she raised the issue in Parliament answers were evasive.

The NSO publication Social Security Benefits: A Locality Perspective - 2009, showed that five Gozitan localities had the highest rates of people receiving invalidity pensions.

These were Għasri (51.2 per 1,000 population), Xewkija (49.8), Fontana (43.4), Xagħra (39.7) and Kerċem (39.4) topping the list.

On the opposite end of the league table, Swieqi (6.3), Mtarfa (6.5), Attard (9.2), Ta' Xbiex (11.2) and Sliema (12.3) had the lowest rates of people receiving invalidity pensions.

Statistics could not be denied, Mr Grech added, but it was also true that Gozitan localities registered the lowest number of single unmarried parents receiving social assistance.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.