Spending on social protection in 2009 grew twice as fast in Malta in percentage terms than in the rest of Europe, a comparative survey published by the NSO shows.
In 2009, social protection expenditure across the EU27 increased by an average 4.2 per cent over 2008, while in Malta the annual increase was of 8.1 per cent.
EU27 Social Protection Benefits as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2009 stood at 28.4 per cent, a 10.6 per cent increase over the previous year, most as a result on the recession and consequent unemployment.
Malta's Social Protection Benefits as a percentage of the Gross Domestic
Product went up by 8.3 per cent and expenditure as a ratio of the GDP stood at 19.8 per cent in 2009.
Expressed as a percentage of GDP, the increases in social protection varied from a high of 33.4 per cent in Latvia to a low of 2.3 per cent in Hungary.
In 2009 the EU27 average for cash benefits as a percentage of total benefits stood at 65.1 per cent, whereas in Malta it stood at 68.4 per cent.
The proportion of benefits given in cash varied widely across the EU, from 55.0 per cent in Sweden to 78.8 in Portugal. Meanwhile the proportion of benefits in kind in 2009 at EU27 level remained unchanged from 2008, but in Malta these went up by 5.5 per cent.
In 2009, only 11.2 per cent of the EU27 average social protection expenditure was subject to means-testing. Non-means tested expenditure in Malta accounted for 86.5 per cent of total benefit expenditure. Ireland was the Member State with the highest application of means-testing rules as only three-fourths of expenditure was allocated to non-means tested benefits.
On the other hand, Estonia spends almost all its social expenditure without
imposing any means-testing restrictions.
With 52.3 per cent of total expenditure on social protection, Malta ranks third among the EU27 Member States with the highest proportion of expenditure on Old Age/Survivors pensions. With regard to the
Sickness/Healthcare function, Malta is the seventh Member State with the highest expenditure reaching 30.8 per cent compared to an EU27 average of 29.6 per cent.
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