The Old Age function covers all interventions against the risks linked to retirement and aging, including pensions given to retirees from the labour market, lodging in specialised retirement homes and any services provided to persons unable to independently care for themselves.
Salient Points
Overview: 2024
1. Old Age benefits retained the largest allocation of social outlay, amounting to €1,336.4 million or 43.4 per cent of the total.
2. Higher expenditure was reported under each active scheme, with the biggest growths recorded in Social Security Contributory Benefits (€87.5 million) and Care of the Elderly and the Disabled (€65.8 million).
Social Security Benefits: 2024
3. A €91.2 million rise in social spending covering old age social benefits, following a €45.8 million increase in Two-Thirds Pension coupled with a €17.3 million rise in Contributory Bonus.
4. 8,449 more Two-Thirds pensioners in comparison to 2020.
5. There were 182 old age benefits recipients for every 1,000 residents in Malta and Gozo.
6. Highest concentration within the Southern Harbour district (230 beneficiaries per 1,000 population). In contrast, the lowest ratio was reported under the Northern district (140 beneficiaries per 1,000 population).
7. Among the 68 local councils, beneficiary-to-residents proportions ranged from 39.8 per cent of L-Imdina inhabitants to 9.3 per cent of people living in San Pawl il-Baħar.
Care of the Elderly and the Disabled: 2024
8. A €65.8 million rise in spending towards elderly and community care services, mainly attributed to accommodation services following a €44.8 million increase in Homes for the Elderly coupled with €15.7 million higher spending for Residential Care in Private Homes.
9. Total spending reached €265.1 million, representing 8.6 per cent of Malta’s annual social outlay.
10. Over 350,000 meals delivered through the Meals on Wheels service, providing daily meals to senior citizens or individuals with special needs who are unable to prepare meals for themselves. An increase of 19.1% over the 301,836 meals delivered in 2023.
Service Pensions: 2024
11. Payable following continuous years of public service, total expenditure towards service pensions amounted to €105.2 million, reflecting a €4.5 million rise from 2023.
12. Majority of outlay allocated to Civil Pensions (94.9 per cent of the total).
13. Men represented 84.8 per cent of the 11,464 pensioners reported.
Other schemes: 2024
14. A marginal increase of 2.2 per cent in Gozo ferry subsidised tickets sales.
15. Spending towards non-profit homes for the elderly totalled €9.0 million, €0.5 million higher than the prior year.
16. There were 1,988 senior citizens claiming lower rents on their residence fixed telephone line.
Tables
Maps
Methodological Notes
Social Security Benefits
1. Expenditure towards social security benefits is collected through the Treasury’s Corporate Financial Management Solution (CFMS). On the other hand, Service Pensions outlay is obtained from the Treasury’s Annual Financial Report.
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 a contributory pension or Orphans’ Allowance 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:
Similarly, these bonus payments are payable to individuals obtaining non-contributory Age Pension. The share attributed to these benefits is computed through the following equation:
5. Further to the bonuses listed in point 4, any person in receipt of a contributory pension is also eligible to receive the COLA (2024 weekly rate: €12.81). For each reference year, the total COLA is provided and then apportioned between each type of pension by using the following equation:
Similarly, recipients of non-contributory pensions are also eligible to receive COLA. For each reference year, the total COLA paid is provided by the DSS and is then apportioned between each type of pension by using the following equation:
Bus Fare Subsidy
6. 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.
Pensioners’ Gozo Ferry Boat Subsidy
7. For each reference year, the total number of tickets sold to Kartanzjan holders is obtained from Gozo Channel Ltd. The data is categorized into the following five types of tickets available to elderly persons:
a. Gozitan Resident Foot Passengers – Kartanzjan
b. Maltese Resident Foot Passengers – Kartanzjan
c. Maltese Resident Car plus Driver – Kartanzjan
d. Gozitan Resident Car plus Driver – Kartanzjan
e. Gozitan Resident Motorcycle plus Rider fare – Kartanzjan
8. For each type of ticket, the subsidy is calculated by first deducting the reduced fare from the standard fare paid by other passengers and then multiplying the difference with the total number of tickets sold.
Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households
9. Non-profit old age services include homes for the elderly covered by the Archdiocese of Malta, and support in cases of persons suffering from dementia.
Subsidies on utilities
10. To estimate the total subsidy paid on the telephone rebate, the difference between the standard rate (€13.99) and the reduced rate (€2.49) is multiplied with the number of recipients of the rebate. The latter figure is obtained from the Department of Active Ageing and Community Care.
