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Kurt Sansone
Strange things do happen before a general election and judging from the number of people that were declared invalid for work and thus eligible for an invalidity pension prior to last year’s election it seems that the system has all the hallmarks of political appeasement.
Statistics obtained by MaltaToday from the Social Welfare Department show that the number of people ‘boarded out’ in 2002 was almost double the number of approved cases in the previous two years.
In 2000 there were 6,255 individuals relieved of their duties because of ill-health, or ‘boarded out.’ The following year the number increased by 446 to reach 6,701. In 2002, on the doorstep of the election, the number of people boarded out increased dramatically by 860 to reach 7,561. And it seems that campaign fever in 2003 struck heavily with a further 878 persons declared boarded out and eligible for a pension.
The last headcount of people boarded out shows that there are 8,439 individuals receiving an invalidity pension.
According to social security legislation, individuals who are boarded out cannot engage in gainful occupation while receiving the invalidity pension. To qualify, a person needs to have paid at least 250 contributions from the age of 19 and has to be certified as incapable for suitable full-time or regular part-time employment by a medical panel.
It is an open secret that the system has been and continues to be an occasion for abuse by individuals, who opt for boarding out in a bid to live off the pension while finding employment in the black economy.
But the ‘abnormal’ increase in the number of persons boarded out on the eve of an election leads one to believe that abuse is not solely linked to individual cases but may very well have its root in political favouritism.
kurt@newsworksltd.com
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