1.1 Gross Expenditure
Social protection covers all measures from public or private entities to support households or individuals from a defined set of risks or needs, aiming to reduce poverty and vulnerability within societies. Throughout this domain, users will be presented the principal attributes of Malta’s social protection system, classifying data by ESSPROS function and social protection scheme. In Section 1.1, a review of the gross social outlay along the five-year period between 2020 and 2024 will be conducted. The remaining sections will then shift focus towards the ESSPROS modules; (1) Net ESSPROS (1.2), (2) Pension Beneficiaries (1.3) and (3) Unemployment Benefits Recipients (1.4).
Salient Points
… Social outlay amounted to €3,080.8 million, a 12.4 per cent rise from the previous reference year.
… The social protection-to-GDP share rose from 13.1 per cent in 2023 to 13.4 per cent in 2024.
… Highest increases were noted under the Social Security Contributory Benefits (€109.2 million) and Care of the Elderly and the Disabled (€69.6 million) schemes. Lower outlay was registered by three of the 17 active schemes, with the €2.0 million drop exhibited in the Energy Benefit scheme representing the largest decrease.
… Function-wise, expenditure ranged from €1.3 billion (43.4 per cent of the total outlay) under the Old Age function to €25.4 million (0.8 per cent) within the Unemployment function.
… Non means-tested cash benefits accounted for 49.2 per cent of the total social expenses.
Charts
1.1.1 Social gross expenditure by ESSPROS function
Reference years: 2015-2024
1.1.2 Social gross expenditure by ESSPROS function (as a percentage of GDP)
Reference years: 2015-2024
1.1.3 Social Protection Expenditure by type and means-testing
Tables
Methodological Notes
1. Social Protection expenditure data is compiled according to the European System of integrated Social Protection Statistics (ESSPROS) manual as developed by Eurostat.
2. Expenditure data is sourced from multiple administrative sources, including:
a. Department of Social Security (DSS);
b. Treasury Department;
c. Jobsplus;
d. Transport Malta;
e. Gozo Channel Ltd;
f. The NSO’s National Accounts Methods, Standards and Sector Accounts Unit;
g. Housing Authority;
h. Foundation for Social Welfare Services;
i. Malta Enterprise.
3. Social benefits are grouped into schemes, a unit specifically defined in the ESSPROS manual (Part 1, Article 35) as a “distinct body of rules, supported by one or more institutional units, governing the provision of social benefits and their financing.” Schemes are chosen in such a way that they provide protection against a single risk or need, being aimed at a single specific group of beneficiaries. Furthermore, schemes should also meet the criteria that one is able to report a separate account of receipts and expenditures.
4. In each scheme, social benefits are then further categorised into the eight ESSPROS functions (manual Part 1, Article 110), together accounting for all the social risks faced by society:
a. Sickness/Health care: Income maintenance and support in cash in connection with physical or mental illness, excluding disability. Health care intended to maintain, restore or improve the health of the people protected irrespective of the origin of the disorder.
b. Disability: Income maintenance and support in cash or kind (except health care) in connection with the inability of physically or mentally disabled people to engage in economic and social activities.
c. Old Age: Income maintenance and support in cash or kind (except health care) in connection with old age.
d. Survivors: Income maintenance and support in cash or kind in connection with the death of a family member.
e. Family/Children: Support in cash or kind (except health care) in connection with the costs of pregnancy, childbirth and adoption, bringing up children and caring for other family members.
f. Unemployment: Income maintenance and support in cash or kind in connection with unemployment.
g. Housing: Help towards the cost of housing.
h. Social exclusion not elsewhere classified (n.e.c.): Benefits in cash or kind (except health care) specifically intended to combat social exclusion that are not covered by one of the other functions.
5. Definitions:
a. Benefits in kind: Benefits granted in the form of goods and services.
b. Cash benefits: Paid in cash annually either periodically (for example, every four weeks) or as one payment in the form of a lump-sum. These include income-substituting benefits such as unemployment cash benefits or pensions, and/or income-supplementing cash benefits such as housing benefits and child allowances.
c. Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Total value (at current market prices) of final goods and services produced within a country during a reference period.
d. Households: Individuals living within the same housing unit as their usual place of residence.
e. Means-tested social benefits: Benefits explicitly or implicitly conditional on the beneficiary’s income and/or wealth falling below a specified level.
f. Non means-tested social benefits: Eligibility is independent of the applicant’s earned income or capital, instead being based on alternative criteria such as meeting the minimum contribution conditions or satisfying residency status.
g. Social protection: All interventions from public or private bodies intended to relieve households and individuals of the burden of a defined set of risks or needs, if there is neither a simultaneous reciprocal nor an individual arrangement involved.
6. Social protection accounts are largely harmonised with National Accounts’ publications and form an integral part of the workings of the macro-economic framework for the calculation of GDP in terms of the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 2010). ESA 2010 is an internationally compatible accounting framework for a systematic and detailed description of a total economy, its components and its relations with other total economies.
7. Expenditure data is subject to revisions, principally in line with National Accounts backward revisions.
