A move by the government to allow widows to earn more than the minimum wage without losing all or part of their pension has failed to encourage many to take up full-time employment – but has boosted the numbers working part-time.

Both governments had been pressured to remove the restriction, which meant that widows were getting a reduced pension because their income exceeded the national minimum wage and/or they had dependent children under the age of 21 who were still in education.

In the Budget for 2014, the restriction was raised and the Department of Social Security within the Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity set about contacting women who were not receiving any pension at all because their income exceeded the national minimum wage. The department also wanted to contact women who might be interested in going back to work under the new conditions.

Out of the widows who do work, those over retirement age represent 56 per cent

The number of widows working part-time increased from around 460 in 2013 to 719 in 2014 – however, it is hard to know how much of this is a result of the Budget measure as the number has anyway been increasing slowly but surely over the past five years. In 2010, there were just over 300 widows working part-time.

However, the number of widows working full-time has hardly budged, if anything going down from 1,141 in 2013 in 2013 to 1,108 in 2014 and down again to 1,031 by the third quarter of 2015.

However, the department unveiled some interesting figures: there are 551 widows over retirement age who are still working – 54 of them full-time, 453 on part-time basis and 44 on reduced hours.

In all, 16,315 persons receive a widows’ pension of which 2,041 are under retirement age. This means that out of the widows who do work, those over retirement age represent 56 per cent.