Every time I’m in some European city I cringe at the sight of homeless people begging in the streets. As I reach down into my pockets to appease my guilt, I thank heavens that I don’t have to face any such scenes in Malta.

Admittedly, in the past couple of years I’ve seen a few beggars here and there but nothing compared to the numbers that I see in other parts of Europe. But because in Malta such poverty is not so much in our face, we sometimes make the mistake of thinking that it doesn’t exist.

Sadly we couldn’t be further away from the truth.

Over the past couple of years, poverty increased by approximately 3%.

22,000 kids are at risk of poverty or social exclusion and, 13,000 of these children live with families that earn less than €6,500 a year.

How this is even possible is beyond me because even if we take the best case scenario and assume that these families are made up if of one adult and one very self-sufficient child, they would only have a mere €17 per day for the two of them to survive on.

This would need to cover rent, water and electricity bills, food, drink, clothing, education, transport, and medical needs.

Assuming that the parent does not smoke, drink, or have any sort of a life outside of the home, and that the child does not own any toys or dreams, and assuming that they never forget a light bulb on, ever, it’s still impossible to imagine how they can possibly survive on so little.

Many would argue that this would only be the case if someone chose to live on benefits alone, or if they worked part time, but the truth is that if someone had to work their behind off in a full time 40-hour-week job on the minimum wage, the difference would be so pathetically minor that it would make absolutely no sense to go for the working option.

We’re talking about a difference of not more than €2,000 a year and when you calculate the cost of actually getting out and going to work instead of staying home drinking tea, the amount could very easily go down to a few hundreds per year.

Back in 2007 the Revised European Social Charter revealed that the difference in earnings for a family with two adults and two children whose breadwinner worked a full time job on the minimum wage Vs. another similar family who lived only on benefits, was of a mere €15 to €18/week more. If I had no skills to get me a higher paying job than the minimum wage, I’d stay home and count my blessings instead of going out to work. I’d also never have children, but that’s a different story.

The Government has now set itself the ambitious challenge of lifting 22,000 people out of poverty by the end of next year and, whilst I augur every success, I can’t possibly believe that this can be done fairly, without any playing around with numbers, statistics and, shifting of goal posts.

The reason I’m skeptical is because whilst we’ve earmarked €10million to address the situation, we remain adamantly blind to the fact that the difference between living on benefits and having a full time minimum wage job is so pathetically small that no one in their right mind would opt for it.

Granted, increasing the minimum wage would not work had we to do it in isolation and take no other measures, but by keeping it as low as it is, we indirectly endorse the belief that a man or woman who work 40 hours a week should be able to live adequately, when we bloody well know that it’s not possible without cheating, working undeclared hours, lying for benefits or a combination of all.

So tell me, is this what we’re going for? More cheating, more abuse, more people opting to stay on benefits instead of working? More crime? Or is there a crafty statistical ace up someone’s sleeve that we’re not seeing?

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