A budget measure intended to support elderly citizens has come under fire, with some on social media claiming that it will see the government dishing out annual benefits to third-country nationals.
The posts latch on to the newly tweaked budget measure which increases the annual bonus granted to people who have paid as little as one year’s worth of national insurance (NI) contributions.
The measure, the posts say, mean that any foreigner who works in Malta for a year will now be getting a handsome €550 handout from the government each year.
The posts have caused indignation and confusion in equal measure in some quarters.
What does the measure actually say?
In truth, the measure has little to do with foreigners and is intended to support people who stopped working early to care for their families, often women who left the workforce after getting married and having children.
The measure, officially known as the “Contributory Retirement Grant for Non-Pensioners”, says that anyone who has paid a single year’s worth of national NI contributions will receive an annual €550 grant once they retire.
This amount can rise to a yearly €1,000 if they have paid nine years’ worth of contributions.
The measure was first introduced in 2015, although it has been tweaked several times over the years, most recently in this year’s budget, held in late October.
Previously, a €500 annual payout would be given to anyone who paid up to four years’ worth of contributions, with €600 going to anyone who paid between five and nine years.
Do foreign citizens qualify for the bonus?
The measure does not apply to third-country nationals, although non-Maltese EU citizens may qualify for the bonus.
The measure’s website explains that a person “must be a resident in Malta, or in a European Union Country,” but bilateral agreements mean that there are also instances in which people resident in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK may qualify, as long as they paid their contributions in Malta.
Government sources confirmed with Times of Malta that the measure only applies to Maltese and EU citizens.
In the case of EU citizens, this measure applies on a pro-rata basis, meaning that if an EU citizen spends a handful of years working (and paying NI contributions) in Malta, these will be aggregated to the other contributions they have paid in all other EU member states throughout their lifetime. They would then be entitled to a percentage of the bonus on a pro-rata basis.
Third-country nationals do not qualify for this measure at all and can only qualify for a Maltese pension if they have paid at least 10 years’ worth of NI contributions in Malta.
But authorities believe that very few of the 16,000 people expected to benefit from the measure are not Maltese, with finance minister Clyde Caruana during his budget speech saying that the measure would mostly target “married women”.
In any case, the measure isn’t paid throughout a person’s lifetime, as some of the posts imply, but only once a person has reached retirement age.
Verdict
The measure grants people who do not have enough national insurance contributions to qualify for a pension a yearly grant once they receive pensionable age.
The measure applies to Maltese and EU citizens (the latter on a pro-rata basis), but not to third-country nationals. The only exception is in cases where specific bilateral agreements exist, such as for people from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK.
The grant is not given throughout a person’s entire lifetime, as some of the posts suggest, but is only given once a person reaches retirement age.
The claim is therefore false as the evidence clearly refutes the claim.
The Times of Malta fact-checking service forms part of the Mediterranean Digital Media Observatory (MedDMO) and the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), an independent observatory with hubs across all 27 EU member states that is funded by the EU’s Digital Europe programme. Fact-checks are based on our code of principles.
Let us know what you would like us to fact-check, understand our ratings system or see our answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the service.
The measure does not apply to all foreigners. File photo: Chris Sant Fournier
Copyright 2024 Times of Malta. All rights reserved.
Originally published here.
