News | Sunday, 15 March 2009

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Gozo retains high level of boarded-out workers

James Debono
The island of Gozo, with a population of 31,000, is home to 15.3% of all workers that are boarded out of employment and in receipt of a supporting pension.
Although constituting just 7.7% of the Maltese population, Gozo has 974 of the total 6,346 people that are boarded out in the country, Social Policy Minister John Dalli revealed in parliament.
The number corresponds to 3.8% of Gozitans aged 15 years and over, as against the 1.6% of the same cohort living in Malta.
But in 2008, only 32 Gozitans were boarded out – representing 8% of the total 392 persons boarded out last year. The new figures show a slight decrease in Gozitans receiving an invalidity pension, where in 2007 they accounted for 1,053 of the 6,969 recipients of the pension.
Anyone certified by a medical panel as being incapable for suitable full-time or regular part-time employment due to a serious disease or bodily or mental impairment, can be eligible for an invalidity pension.
But Gozitans have retained their over-representation among the ranks of the invalid, once again raising doubts on whether health is the sole factor determining who is receiving this benefit.
Replying to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Anthony Agius Decelis, Dalli revealed that while 32 Gozitans had been boarded out last year, 208 Gozitans also had their invalidity pension renewed again in 2008.
Although less Gozitans are being boarded out than ever before, the state is still paying for a disproportionate number of invalidity pensions issued to Gozitans in previous years.
In fact, while 208 Gozitans had their invalidity pension renewed in 2008 only 400 persons from the rest of Malta had their pension renewed in the same year.
This means that over one-third – 34.2% – of invalidity pensions renewed in 2008 involved Gozitan recipients.
But taking comfort in the fact that only 32 Gozitans were boarded out in 2008 – a figure which reflects the percentage of Gozitans in the Maltese population – a spokesperson for the social policy ministry insisted that “the system is working as it should”, even if it is still being fine-tuned to ensure that it is “fair and just to all”.
The spokesperson added that the state should only award invalidity pension to “deserving cases only and not used as an early opt-out from the labour force”.
MaltaToday also asked Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono to explain the high proportion of Gozitans amongst the ranks of the so called ‘boarded out’ but no reply was forthcoming by the time of going to print.

jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt

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