Widows may get privilege of working pensioners

Widows could eventually be able to continue working while keeping their government pension, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.

The PN party is trying to get closer to the people through certain initiatives, including dialogue meetings

Government officials were looking into the system now in place whereby a person receiving a widow’s pension had to forfeit it if that person found a job and earned more than the minimum wage, Dr Gonzi said in a recorded interview on party-owned Radio 101.

He explained that he became aware of this situation after a 46-year-old widow wrote to him, asking why pensioners were allowed to continue working – without any capping – while keeping their pension.

“I told my officials to study the situation. If we gave such a benefit to pensioners, then why shouldn’t we extend it to widows and widowers,” Dr Gonzi said.

The party has been trying to get closer to the people through a number of initiatives including dialogue meetings with civil society and a new website, www.mychoice.pn, aimed at attracting everyone – but especially young people - to contribute to the party’s policies and plans.

Dr Gonzi explained that he was also meeting employees in their own work environment and, in his first visit to the Excelsior Hotel, he met the staff in their canteen.

Describing it as a “learning experience”, Dr Gonzi said that, in the coming months, he would continue meeting individuals and listening to their needs.

Turning to a motion presented by the opposition last week calling for the resignation of Malta’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana, Dr Gonzi said this was nothing but “incompetence”.

Labour had failed to understand 2004 US Embassy cables – released by Wikileaks – and thought that at the time the government wanted to rejoin Nato’s Partnership for Peace programme, Dr Gonzi said.

In 2004, Malta was at a “disadvantage” because it did not have Nato or PfP membership after a decision by former Prime Minister Alfred Sant and “certain security documents about the Mediterranean and Malta were inaccessible”, he explained.

Acting in the “country’s best interests”, Mr Cachia Caruana had pointed out to the US Embassy that Malta could still access the documents through another agreement.

“Somehow, Labour got its facts entirely wrong and publicly accused a person who did his duty… We had no intention of joining PfP and there are documents in Cabinet proving this,” Dr Gonzi said.

Malta eventually rejoined in 2008.

He criticised Labour leader Joseph Muscat’s comments in defending North Korea’s “sovereign right to test rocket launches”.

“I had told Muscat not to endanger our good reputation when the Korean news wires quoted him saying certain things to the ambassador of North Korea.” But, instead, Dr Muscat defended North Korea’s sovereign right to test rocket launches, “an action condemned by the United Nations and every agency in the world,” Dr Gonzi said.