As I meet many wonderful people every day on my rounds in the first and second districts, some Nationalists tell me there isn’t any real poverty in Maltese society. “There are no beggars on the streets!” they exclaim. True. We have not regressed to the colonial days of the 1940s. But is this a true measure of poverty? Just because you don’t see beggars on the streets, it doesn’t mean than many people aren’t on their knees, quietly begging their relatives, friends, and neighbours for help.
It is unfair that the rich have been getting richer while 88,000 people suffer indecent conditions in Maltese society- Yana Bland Mintoff
I get a desperate call at least once a day. Many other folk are heavily and stressfully in the hock. Some are even in prison because they have not been able to pay their debts.
After all, how can you possibly make ends meet on an income of €500 or less a month? I’ve met hundreds of people at a venerable age trying to scrape by on meagre pensions. Others are heads of families who have met with ill-fortune – an accident at work or the loss of a job.
Others are single parents living in overcrowded, indecent conditions. Many others are earning the minimum wage, or like the care worker I just met who earns only €4 an hour. Many others cannot find work. Their strife is papable. Their hope for change is desperate.
GonziPN boasts that wages have risen and many people have more money in their pockets. But what is the real value of this money? It has to be measured against the rise in prices. For most people, recent inflation has hit so hard that they have suffered a loss in real income and real spending power.
The Caritas survey using a budget standard approach to measure absolute poverty is compulsory reading for anyone who is serious about national progress and social justice – priorities for any responsible politician.
Starting from the standard that everyone should have the capacity to survive, poverty is defined as a set of precarious circumstances, characterised by a permanent lack of financial resources (Poverty Among Us, 2010, Caritas Europe).
It found that 15.5 per cent or 63,474 of surveyed individuals fall below the at-risk poverty threshold of €6,260 per year in 2010 – 20 per cent of people under 18 years of age, and 19 per cent of over 65-year-olds are living in dire straits. In other words, one in every five people in the more vulnerable old and young age groups currently live in poverty.
An astounding 56 per cent of people living in single parent households are at risk of poverty. According to Eurostat, Malta had the highest rate of single parent household poverty among all EU 27 countries in 2009.
The Caritas definition of poverty is very stringent. It excludes the purchase of most medicine, including osteoporosis medication, and it excludes purchases of books, newspapers and use of mobiles. It assumes that school uniforms last two years and there are no specific expenses for health-related activities, no gifts, no pets and no holidays overseas.
As most readers know, a major proposal that Caritas makes in its conclusion is that the minimum wage should be raised from €158 to €180 per week so that the take-home pay of a full-time employee, including statutory bonuses but excluding social security contributions, would rise from €7,912 per year to €8,936 per year.
The Labour Party promises to lower the cost of basic goods and services, like electricity, water and childcare, to raise real incomes.
Poverty, of course, is not only absolute. It is also relative. When the gap between the rich (who can open Swiss bank accounts) and the poor (who have nothing in their bank accounts) is widening every day, even folk who are not in absolute poverty feel deprived. A deep-seated feeling exists that the pie should be shared fairly. It is a value that all creatures seem to respect (see TED Talks).
Perhaps, fairness is predicated on the need for communal survival. For whatever reason, even the youngest child can clearly distinguish between what is fair and what is unfair. It is unfair that the rich have been getting much richer while, at the latest count, 88,000 people (of whom over 17,000 are children) suffer indecent conditions of multiple deprivation in Maltese society.
Relative poverty cannot be measured simply by how much money jingles in your pocket. Its best definition is holistic. Your quality of life depends on real income but it also depends on your home, work and recreational environment, your air and water quality, your exposure to pollution and stress, your freedom and mobility, and your respect in the community, or in other words, your freedom from prejudice and discrimination.
We have a long way to go on this path. But if every step is a stairway to a fairer and more just society, we will all enjoy much happier and healthier lives on our beautiful islands.
Yana Bland Mintoff is a Labour Party candidate.