NSO Malta | Social Protection Expenditure: 2023

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Social Protection Expenditure: 2023

NR060/2025

08 April 2025

Social Protection outlay for 2023 totalled €2,716.6 million, a €106.4 million or 4.1 per cent rise from the previous year.
Largest increases were registered under Social Security Contributory Benefits (€72.8 million) and Hospitals and Other Health Care Facilities (€57.1 million). On the other hand, Service Pensions exhibited the highest drop at €0.8 million.
Old Age and Sickness/Health care benefits accounted for 77.9 per cent of the total. Conversely, Unemployment benefits accounted for 0.9 per cent of the social outlay.
In 2023, 50.1 per cent of social protection was supplied through the form of non means-tested cash benefits.

Social Protection Expenditure: 2023

NR060/2025

08 April 2025

By the end of 2023, social protection outlay totalled €2,716.6 million, a 4.1 per cent increase from the previous year.

Social expenditure in 2023 climbed by €106.4 million from the €2,610.3 million reported in 2022. This spending was equivalent to 13.2 per cent of the national GDP, a 1.1 percentage point drop from the preceding year, following higher GDP growth (12.4 per cent) being reported between the two reference years.

Higher social outlay was reported in 13 of Malta’s 17 active schemes. The largest increase was recorded under Social Security Contributory Benefits (€72.8 million), followed by Hospitals and Other Health Care Facilities (€57.1 million) and Care of the Elderly and the Disabled (€26.9 million). On the other hand, no expenditure was reported under both the COVID-19 Support Measures and Bus Fare Subsidy, following the phasing out of these schemes in May and October 2022, respectively. Reduced spending was also recorded under Service Pensions (€0.8 million), Sedqa (€0.4 million), Jobsplus (€0.3 million) and Appoġġ (€0.2 million) (Table 1).

When categorised according to the European System of integrated Social Protection Statistics’ (ESSPROS) eight functions (refer to methodological note 3), total social outlay ranged from €1.2 billion in Old Age benefits to €23.6 million in Unemployment measures. In comparison to 2022, increases were reported under seven functions, with the largest rise of €84.3 million registered under Old Age. Higher spending also went towards Sickness/Health Care (€66.5 million), Family/Children (€20.2 million), Survivors (€15.2 million), Social exclusion not elsewhere classified (n.e.c.) (8.2 million), Disability (€7.0 million), and Housing (€4.9 million). In the opposite direction, a drop of €99.9 million was recorded under Unemployment programs (Table 2).

Chart 1. Social gross expenditure by ESSPROS function

Reference period: 2014-2023

Chart 2. Social gross expenditure by ESSPROS function as a percentage of GDP

Reference period: 2014-2023

A larger share (55.4 per cent) of social expenditure was provided in the form of cash payments, with the remaining 44.6 per cent administered through goods and services. Non means-tested benefits accounted for 91.7 per cent of the total, 54.6 per cent being cash benefits. Similarly, the remaining 8.3 per cent representing means-tested benefits were predominantly given through cash benefits (63.9 per cent) (Chart 3).

Chart 3. Social Protection Expenditure by type and means-testing

Reference year: 2023

Chart 4. Social Protection Expenditure by type

Reference period: 2014-2023

Tables

Table 1. Social protection gross expenditure by period and scheme

Table 2. Social protection gross expenditure by period and ESSPROS function

Table 3. Social protection gross expenditure by period, means-testing and type

All Tables

Methodological Notes

1. Social Protection Expenditure data published in this release is compiled in line with the European System of integrated Social Protection Statistics (ESSPROS) Manual 2022 edition as issued by Eurostat.

2. Expenditure data reported is largely collected from various administrative sources, including:

i. Department of Social Security;

ii. Treasury Department;

iii. Jobsplus;

iv. Transport Malta;

v. Gozo Channel Ltd.;

vi. The NSO’s National Accounts Methods, Standards and Sector Accounts Unit;

vii. Housing Authority;

viii. Foundation for Social Welfare Services;

ix. Malta Enterprise.

3. In each scheme, social benefits are then further categorised into eight functions, together accounting for all the social risks faced by society. These functions are defined in the ESSPROS manual (Part 1, Article 110) as follows:

i. 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.

ii. 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.

iii. Old Age: Income maintenance and support in cash or kind (except health care) in connection with old age.

iv. Survivors: Income maintenance and support in cash or kind in connection with the death of a family member.

v. 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.

vi. Unemployment: Income maintenance and support in cash or kind in connection with unemployment.

vii. Housing: Help towards the cost of housing.

viii. 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.

4. 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.

5. Sick leave covered by the employer during the first three days of absence is estimated based on the number of sick/injury hours per capita extracted from the Labour Cost Survey (LCS). Data collection through the survey began in 2008 and is performed every four years by the NSO’s Labour Market and Information Society Unit. For the years in between, a combination of linear interpolation and forecasting techniques are used to estimate the comparative sick/injury hours per capita.

6. Definitions:

i. Benefits in kind: Social benefits provided through goods and/or services.

ii. Cash benefits: Social benefits paid in cash either periodically at regular intervals (for example, payments are made every four weeks) or as one single payment in the form of a lump-sum. The general scope of these benefits may be as a replacement for previously earned income, as is the scope of pensions, or as a supplement to one’s annual income, for example Children’s Allowance.

iii. Gross domestic product (GDP): The total output (at current market prices) produced within a country during a reference period.

iv. Means-tested social benefits: Social benefits explicitly or implicitly conditional on the beneficiary’s income and/or wealth falling below a specified threshold. These benefits are generally targeted towards low-income households.

v. 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, provided that there is neither a simultaneous reciprocal nor an individual arrangement involved.

7. 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.

8. Data in this release is subject to revisions, principally due to National Accounts backward revisions.

9. More information relating to this news release may be accessed at:

Sources and Methods

Social Protection 2024 Publication

The data in this release presents a continuation of the previous year’s publication through the incorporation of 2023 expenditure. For further information on Malta’s schemes, together with any additional methodological notes, one should refer to the Annexes of the publication.

Government Expenditure on Social Security Benefits News Release

For further information on benefits reported in the Social Security Contributory and Non-Contributory Benefits schemes.

10. References to this news release are to be cited appropriately. For guidance on access and re-use of data please visit our dedicated webpage.

11. A detailed news release calendar is available online.

12. For further assistance send your request through our online request form.

News Releases

Social Protection Expenditure: 2023

Social Protection Expenditure: 2023

Social Protection Expenditure: 2023

Chart 1. Social gross expenditure by ESSPROS function

Chart 2. Social gross expenditure by ESSPROS function as a percentage of GDP

Chart 3. Social Protection Expenditure by type and means-testing

Chart 4. Social Protection Expenditure by type

Tables

Tables

Methodological Notes

Social Protection

Other News Releases

Other Related Themes

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