The General Workers’ Union has urged the government to explore ways to encourage population growth, including cash grants to encourage couples to have children and sustainable integration of migrants.

The GWU made its call as part of its reaction to the government’s proposals on pension reform,  pointing out that population growth – and an increase in the number of social security contributions – would help make the pensions system sustainable.

It noted that the government was rightly encouraging more women to go out to work. This would lead to an increase in government revenue from income tax and social security contributions. But in the future, the government would be facing a higher pensions bill because of the higher number of working women. At the same time, the birth rate had started a downward trend.

Some countries had opted to grant hard cash to encourage couples to have children. Nonetheless, raising children was not cheap and the government therefore should consider various options for the population to grow.

The union also said that it is of the view that the revenue from social security contributions should not go into the general consolidated fund but should be administered separately as used to be done in the past.

The union called for cost of living adjustments should be calculated in full when pension revisions are made.

It also said that, without an increase  in social security contributions, the maximum pensions for those born before 1962 should be adjusted to become more relevant to current needs.

The union largely welcomed the proposals made by the government and said it was particularly satisfied that the rate of social security contributions would not be increased and the retirement age would not be raised.