Karl Stagno-Navarra
Government is set to announce an overhaul of its already stringent means-testing programme in a bid to curb abuses in social benefits and reform allowances for single mothers.
The measures are to be announced in the forthcoming budget for 2010 and are intended to be part of a wide-ranging exercise aimed at reducing government expenditure, but also to ensure social justice with who really needs to be assisted by the state.
Single mothers who currently receive benefits from government are expected to be subjected to a wider means-test, where government is reported to be lowering the threshold of €5,000 as the maximum in bank deposits to qualify for such benefits.
Senior government sources have told this paper that the measure is intended to discourage single mothers from considering the assistance as a “comfortable salary” rather than having to go to work.
While children’s allowance is to remain untouched, a series of inter-ministerial meetings are being held to fine-tune the reforms, that must take into consideration the vulnerability of different categories of single mothers.
The reform also addresses the concerns expressed recently by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that more women are needed to produce in the economy and set out for work.
Further reforms are intended to drastically reduce the abuses in social benefits, including unemployment benefits, invalidity and sick leave benefits, and subsidised medicine.
Heavier penalties are envisaged to serve as a deterrent against abuses, while the Ministry for Social Policy is expected to be strengthening it’s anti-fraud unit.
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