One of the solutions to the pensions problem could be immigration, according to government consultant David Spiteri Gingell.

Speaking this morning at a seminar organised by Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, Mr Spiteri Gingell said that as the current pensions were paid through worker’s contributions, a shrinking future workforce due to lower fertility rate coupled with a higher elderly population as a result of longer life-expectancies painted a very bleak picture for pensions as they currently worked.

The solution to a smaller workforce, the consultant said, was to enlarge the workforce, and skilled immigrants for certain roles could just fit the description.

Mr Spiteri Gingell said that people couldn’t be conjured, and pro-natal policies could help, even though these were a double edged sword, in that, statistically, women who decided to have children then withdrew from the economy.

Statistics showed that 40 per cent of those who could work are not being used on the market. “This is made up of two cohorts: women, and retired people. So far, the policy used in Malta is that after retirement, people are useless. It is something we tried to change three years ago, where we removed the cap and people could keep getting a pension and other income. What this means is that we have to look how these people are going to remain active in the market,” Mr Spiteri Gingell said.

He said immigration was something Malta had to look at as a tool the country could use, and that this was the principle countries such as the US and Australia had been using for ages.

He said that in the proposals the working group on pensions he chairs will be presenting to the government, one of the recommendations would be that the retirement age be tied with longevity, a mechanism which was “transparent, neutral and politics-free”.

Mr Spiteri Gingell also said it was “unacceptable” that currently people could not invest in a pension scheme on their own accord, and the government should introduce it as soon as possible.