The government should allocate funds for a “bail out” of those living in poverty, President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said today.

“There are both social and economic incentives to eradicating poverty. And just as we have had other bail outs, we should have one to end this problem,” an impassioned Ms Coleiro Preca said.

She was speaking during the presentation of a report on low income families conducted by Caritas.

The report, entitled, a Minimum Essential Budget for a Decent Living, is a follow up on a previous study and aims to establish “the absolute minimum” a family can live on. It was first published earlier this month. (http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160517/local/caritas-report-says-minimum-wage-is-too-low-and-needs-to-be-reviewed.612351)

Ms Coleiro Preca, who repeatedly excused herself for being overwhelmed with emotion while speaking about poverty, said the government should take the report’s findings on board when setting policy.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160517/local/caritas-report-says-minimum-wage-is-too-low-and-needs-to-be-reviewed.612351

“http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160517/local/caritas-report-says-minimum-wage-is-too-low-and-needs-to-be-reviewed.612351. If I had ever set out to do anything it was to end poverty in Malta in all its forms,” she said, prompting a round of applause from the stakeholders gathered to discuss the report.

Returning to the proposed bail out, Ms Coleiro Preca said this would not cost “many millions”. Besides the social benefits to such a move, the President insisted that dragging thousands of people out of poverty and into a more comfortable life would have a positive impact on the economy.

She said one in three children in Malta was living at risk of poverty, a situation which could not be tolerated any longer.

Her calls for a fiscal solution to the phenomenon were backed by Caritas Director Leonid McKay, who said misconceptions surrounding the subject needed to be dealt with.

“The idea, for instance, that many people have that poor people are a burden, parasites feeding off the Maltese coffers just isn’t true,” he said, adding that abuses committed by other social strata were far more burdensome.

No data on poverty rise

There was no statistical data to prove that poverty was on the rise, Mr McKay said.

He was reacting to a media storm which followed the initial publication of the report last week, after the Opposition had claimed that the report proved poverty had increased. (http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160518/local/pn-to-discuss-the-minimum-wage-with-caritas.612443)

Mr McKay said the data collected in the study did not give an assessment of whether more people were poor, but instead showed that the cost of living a basic decent living had increased.

This, he added, was to some extent a “normal occurrence” as prices increased due to inflation. It was important to compare the rising cost of living to the support and access to self-improvement such families were given.

Referring to divergent figures on the amount of people living in poverty, which were quoted by the Opposition, Mr McKay said that different figures referred to different benchmarks and did not necessarily mean that the total number of poor people had gone up.

“We simply cannot tell whether this number has increased or gone down. That doesn’t mean this isn’t an issue that needs addressing,” he said.