The Family/Children function reports any financial assistance to households raising children, together with funding towards various social services targeting families including childcare and out of home care preserving the well-being of children and vulnerable youths.
Salient Points
Overview: 2024
€212.8 million towards Family/Children benefits, a 20.4 per cent rise from the €176.7 million registered in 2023.
Family/Children expenditure accounted for 6.9 per cent of the total social outlay during the year.
Social Security Benefits: 2024
Family benefits rose from €89.6 million in 2023 to €111.1 million by the end of 2024.
Largest increases noted under Children’s Allowance Supplement (€16.1 million) and In-Work Benefit (€3.0 million).
69,532 recipients of family type benefits, of which 70.2 per cent were women.
Almost three times the number of flat-rate Children’s Allowance beneficiaries (33,940) in comparison to the means-tested allowance (11,734).
Approximately 12.7 per cent of the national population received family benefits.
The South Eastern district reported the highest share (15.7 per cent) of family beneficiaries-to-population.
Locality-wise, beneficiaries ranged from 19.0 per cent of L-Imqabba’s inhabitants to 5.2 per cent of Tas-Sliema’s residents.
Family and Social Welfare: 2024
€81.0 million in spending towards social services within the Family and Social Welfare scheme, a €14.5 million increase from 2023.
Substantial share allocated towards childcare services (70.3 per cent).
At the end of September 2025, there were 204 centres offering free childcare through the Child Care for All scheme.
Other schemes: 2024
Funding towards family services provided through Aġenzija Appoġġ rose by 19.3 per cent, totalling €9.7 million.
There were 14,838 calls made to Supportline 179, Malta’s national helpline.
Energy Benefit recipients dropped by 1,252 to 14,265. Corresponding expenditure fell by €2.0 million.
A €0.4 million rise in outlay for non-profit child and family services.
Charts
Tables
Maps
Methodological Notes
Social Security Benefits
1. Expenditure towards social security benefits is collected through the Treasury’s Corporate Financial Management Solution (CFMS).
2. Beneficiaries’ data is obtained from the Department of Social Security’s (DSS) Unique Beneficiaries Report.
3. As beneficiaries may be in receipt of multiple benefits simultaneously, aggregates may not necessarily be equivalent to the sum of the corresponding benefits as these recipients will only be counted once.
4. Persons in receipt of any form of social assistance are also eligible to receive the special weekly bonus of €4.66 per week and the statutory bonus of €135.10 payable every six months. As bonus payments are solely provided as aggregates, the proportion allocated to claimants of these benefits is based on their corresponding outlay:
APPOĠĠ
5. Financial statements documented by the Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS) are used to collect annual expenses for Aġenzija Appoġġ.
6. Due to different target groups, social services provided by Appoġġ are split between multiple functions (Sickness, Disability, Family/Children and Social Exclusion n.e.c.). As outlay is only available as an aggregate, a pre-established ratio calculated from previous years is applied to allocate the total expenditure among the respective functions.
Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households
7. Family/Children services incorporate community support at improving parent-child relationships and non-profit assistance for children living in care homes, along with other forms of aid.
Bus Fare Subsidy
8. The subsidy is calculated by deducting the price of the reduced fare from the standard price. The resulting amount is then multiplied with the total number of card swipes for that specific type of card, to obtain an estimate for the total subsidy paid.
