A radical overhaul of Malta’s invalidity pensions will introduce a regular review of the benefit, after new rules on the pension were introduced last week.
Over 8,800 claimants who today are ‘boarded out of work’ – a reference to the medical board which grants the lifelong pension – will have their cases reviewed at least once every three years in a bid to ensure the benefit is being awarded fairly.
Under the new laws, the pension – for which government forked out Lm14.8 million last year – will no longer be assigned for life. After a review of invalidity beneficiaries, the Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity found over 60 per cent of claimants had been boarded out on grounds of psychiatric problems. Over 1,800 cases were reviewed since 2006 over “various reasons”, a ministry spokesperson said.
Another innovation is that every beneficiary must first avail themselves of sickness benefit for six months prior to receiving an invalidity pension.
But the pension will also be graded according to the severity of each case, for which doctors will use a scorecard to assess the level of impairment, and the corresponding benefit applicants would be eligible for.
While government says the reforms will ensure that claimants can be “retained as active members of society for as long as possible”, the impairment tables are one of the first steps aimed at ensuring a fairer welfare system that cuts abuse.
Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina called it a “philosophical change” which will lead to a “radically different conceptualization of the welfare system”.
Applicants for the pension will now have to provide a full medical history, without which their application will not be processed. They will now no longer be called in front of a medical board.
The doctors, engaged by the ministry following an expression of interest, will assess the applicant’s medical condition in terms of impairment, and in accordance with the impairment tables, to assess the loss of functional capacity that affects a person’s ability to work.
The tables are scaled according to a point-score system, based around a minimum qualifying threshold, and intended to guide doctors to ‘rate’ applicants in proportion to the severity of the case under consideration.
“We must ensure that those citizens who truly deserve the state’s support and help receive it, far beyond the simple financial pay-out,” Cristina said.
Last year, the costs of the medical panel, now reduced to 28 from 43 doctors, fell to Lm10,926 from Lm45,000 paid in 2005 in sittings, transport costs, and other expenses.
Cristina said the government was now looking towards setting up a structure that will help in the rehabilitation and reskilling of beneficiaries. “This is consonant with the concept declared in the White Paper on Pensions issued in November 2004,” she said.