The government does not seem to be too convinced with the results of a recent important EU survey that found that about 60 per cent of the Maltese felt they were struggling to make ends meet, with 13 per cent claiming they did not have enough money for essential items, including food.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi commented that the EU survey was a study of perceptions, which could have been exacerbated by the new water and electricity rates. He said over 30,000 families received social benefits while the government had allocated €10 million to cushion the higher water and electricity bills.

On its part, the opposition is accusing the government of insensitivity. The Labour Party argues that instead of tackling the hardships, the Prime Minister wanted people to believe these were no more than imaginary.

The government may have its reasons to consider the EU survey as a study of perceptions but many people deem perception to be a valid indicator of reality, albeit by no means the only one.

Moreover, there are some legitimate questions that need to be asked. For instance, are we exaggerating our own financial woes? Are our priorities right when it comes to family and personal budgets?

Are we sure that we are not clinging to perhaps an unbalanced diet of priorities, which gives too much attention to unnecessary luxuries when we should, like so many other societies within the EU and elsewhere, be tightening our belts?

So which should be the way forward? Poverty is generally divided into two types: absolute or extreme poverty and relative poverty. All would happily agree that the Maltese islands are thankfully free from absolute or extreme poverty, which is normally associated with situations where people lack the basic necessities for survival. However, we surely cannot say that there are no people among us whose way of life and income do not compare favourably with the general standard of living in the country and that, on the contrary, they have to struggle to live a normal life.

Caritas director Mgr Victor Grech some weeks ago stated that utility tariffs were pushing those who had been at risk of poverty down to actual poverty. He also identified the rising costs of medicine and the high cost of property as factors which, along with the utility services, were causing hardship.

Speaking at a Caritas forum on the occasion of the European Year Against Poverty and Social Exclusion, Mgr Grech argued in favour of the definition of the poverty line being updated to a more realistic figure. He added that a re-definition was also required of what was an adequate minimum wage in terms of the law, more so as the cost of living had continued to rise.

One should do one's best to help anyone who happens to be living in difficult situations. Therefore, the need to ensure the fullest objective information possible and how best to respond to realities is vital.

Maybe the time has come for the government, which insists so much that it is a listening one, to convene a national conference to identify better those hard situations of life that are leading to vulnerability among our midst and help formulate the right social priorities.