Relevance
Social security
benefits statistics portray the government expenditure on contributory and
non-contributory social security benefits.
The contributory benefits scheme is where an employee, self-occupied or
self-employed person pays a weekly contribution as laid down in the Social
Security Act, through a 'pay-as-you-earn' system. The non-contributory system is not based on
contributions, but on a financial means-test of the person claiming the
benefit.
Contributory
benefits include pensions
in respect of retirement, pensions in respect of invalidity, pensions in
respect of widowhood, benefits in respect of industrial injuries and gratuities,
other benefits, and bonus.
Non-contributory
benefits include child allowance,
old age pension, disability pension/allowance, total social assistance, medical
assistance, supplementary allowance, in-work benefit, child supplementary
benefit and bonus.
Methodological
description
Expenditure data is extracted
from the administrative records of the Social Security Department, and is based
on the Government's Consolidated Fund. Beneficiaries'
data is obtained from the Department of Social Security Unique Beneficiaries
Report.
Data is
collected on a quarterly basis and is compiled in accordance with the ESSPROS
manual. Data is calculated separately
for each scheme and missing or incomplete figures are estimated.
Accuracy
and reliability of data
Quality of
data is assured by adherence to the ESSPROS manual. ESSPROS
data is compiled in line with the corresponding budget reforms announced for
the reference year in question.
The social security benefits data
from the administrative database of the Social Security Department is checked
with the government’s departmental accounting system (DAS).
There are also cases in contributory social security
benefits and non-contributory social security benefits where only a single
total value is available whilst the necessary breakdown is missing. In order to obtain such a breakdown the total
is apportioned through the use of pre-established ratios used in previous years.
Timeliness
and punctuality of data
The
National Statistics Office (NSO) publishes four news releases per year on government
expenditure on social security benefits.
These include data with reference to periods January-March,
January-June, January-September and January-December of a particular year. Such news releases are published within 3
months after the end of the reference period as scheduled in the Advance
Release Calendar and are available on the NSO’s website.
Accessibility
and clarity of data
Since the first edition published in 2008, social security
benefits expenditure and beneficiaries have been included as part of the annual
publication “Social Protection: Malta and the EU”. This publication is published
within one year after the reference year, and is available on the NSO’s website.
Furthermore, a publication entitled ‘Social Security Benefits: A
Locality Perspective’ is published every 4 years by the
NSO and are available on the NSO’s website.
The first one was issued in 2009 and covered reference period 2000-2008
while another publication was issued in 2013 and covered reference period
2014-2012.
Data
government expenditure of social security benefits is available also on the
NSO’s statistical database (StatDB).
Coherence
and comparability/consistency of data
Data on government expenditure of
social security benefits is fully consistent with the European System of
integrated Social PROtection Statistics (ESSPROS) data.
Geographical
comparability is only possible at a national level, as other European Union
member states have different contributory and non-contributory social security
benefits.
Data is comparable from 1995 onwards. Prior to year 2008
the unit of measure was the Maltese Lira (Lm) and the conversion rate to euro used
was the fixed rate of 0.4293.