Last week, I wrote about how the Nationalist Party electoral programme elevates persons with a disability and the elderly to the highest of political priorities, alongside students, youths, workers and people requiring health services.

Never before has an electoral programme focused on persons with disabilities and the elderly to this extent

Never before has a programme of any of the two main parties focused on these two sectors to this extent. This should not come as a surprise given that both persons with a disability and the elderly have been increasingly the focus of the political attention of successive PN governments.

Today, I would like to explain our initiatives for the elderly. There are four main areas of action that are of particular relevance.

Firstly, we want to encourage pensioners to stay in the labour market even after their retirement age if they want to. Currently, a pensioner who continues to work gets a pension but still pays the same national insurance as anyone else until the age of 65. No national insurance is paid after that age. In order to encourage more pensioners to keep working and earn more, the rate of national insurance between retirement age and the age of 65 will now be halved, both for the employer and for the employee. Preferential rates will also apply for the self-employed.

Secondly, we want the elderly to continue participating fully in society. To this end, we will create programmes in conjunction with local councils to provide work opportunities for the elderly within the community, such as work in schools, sports, cultural sectors and others.

We will increase the opportunities of training and education for the elderly who wish to continue studying after retirement as well as opportunities for sport activities. We will also increase the number of day centres in more localities with the elderly themselves having a say in how they are run.

Thirdly, we want to continue improving services for the elderly. In partnership with the private sector, we will increase home care services for the elderly and new tax incentives will be introduced for those who have a carer at home, including for those persons who are on unpaid leave in order to care for their elderly parents.

The carers’ pension will be revised with the intention of helping more people who wish to take care of the elderly or other dependent adults to remain living at home.

When elderly or other dependent adults need special equipment (such as special beds, special mattresses, breathing apparatus) that are normally provided in hospital, these will be made available for home use and provided for by the public health service.

We will also increase the number of residential beds and respite care in homes for the elderly and the disabled who can no longer live at home. This will be done in partnership with the private sector and NGOs while also introducing new geriatric centres and intermediary care services within the community as well as outreach support services to adults, aimed primarily at assisting the ever-increasing number of elderly people who suffer from chronic conditions.

Fourthly, we want to address the issue of the adequacy of pensions in order to ensure that the elderly can get by in a decent manner.

For a start, we will continue to pay the cost of living allowance in full to persons receiving their pensions. In addition, we will extend the recently introduced €300 allowance for the elderly who continue to live at home.

We will bring the qualifying age down to 75 years from 80 years and increase the allowance from €300 to €500 from next year. In the case of a couple remaining at home, the allowance will be paid to both husband and wife.

We will also remove, once and for all, the outstanding discrepancies that still exist with respect to the deduction of private pensions, foreign service pensions and treasury pensions. Thus, pensioners who paid for a private pension apart from national insurance will no longer have their private pension deducted for the purposes of the social security pension and their social security pension will be paid in full.

Likewise, persons who receive or will receive a foreign services pension will no longer have this pension deducted for the purposes of the social security pension and, therefore, they too will receive their social security pension in full.

As to persons who receive or will receive a Treasury pension, they will no longer have the commuted part of their pension deducted for the purposes of the social security pension and, therefore, their social security pension will be increased.

Finally, the elderly will obtain greater benefits in the health sector not least through further investment in regional health centres and rehabilitation facilities.

And, on security, the programme provides for harsher penalties for the most serious crimes, particularly violent crimes against the elderly.

As can be seen, the PN electoral programme constitutes another leap forward for pensioners and the elderly.

For the elderly, March 9 will be a vote for an even better quality of life.

Simon Busuttil is Nationalist Party deputy leader.