Social Protection: Malta and the EU 2015

In 2014:

• ... the total gross social protection expenditure amounted to €1,519.4 million, reflecting an increase of 6.4% compared to 2013.
  
• ... the gross social protection expenditure-to-GDP ratio stood at 18.8%, up by 0.2 percentage point compared to 2013.
• ... the only function registering a decrease in social expenditure was the unemployment function (down by €1.7 million).
• ... the number of sick days taken by private and public employees (648,614) went down by 11,320 days from 2013.
• ... the total tax revenue obtained from social income totalled €30.8 million more than 2013.
• ... the number of pensioners increased by 4,327 when compared to the figure in 2010 ( 2,647 males and 1,680 females).
• ... the majority of beneficiaries benefited from an Old Age benefit, with Mdina and Mtarfa recording the highest and lowest number of beneficiaries per 1000 population at 300 and 59 respectively.
• ... the Gozo and Comino district benefited the most from the Disability function, even though this function registered the least amount of beneficiaries. (In 2013, Malta recorded the second lowest share of social protection expenditure on Disability benefits in the EU - 3.9%).
• ... Xgħajra recorded the largest share of Family/Children beneficiaries (179 recipients per 1,000 population) whereas tas-Sliema recorded the lowest share (61 recipients per 1,000 population).
• ... Ħal-Luqa and Pembroke registered the largest and smallest percentages of Survivors' recipients, at 9.5% and 1.4% respectively (Ħal-Luqa's high rate is mainly due to the fact that St. Vincent de Paul Residence is situated in this locality).
• ... Cospicua and Valletta registered the largest number of Sickness and Social Exclusion recipients, at 187 and 166 beneficiaries per 1,000 population respectively.
• ... Żebbuġ (Gozo) was the locality with the highest ratio of Unemployed beneficiaries to locality population at 7.2%, while the lowest ratio was recorded in Ħ'Attard.
• ... Persons residing in Malta and Gozo on average received €1,892 each in social security benefits, with Floriana and Mtarfa registering the highest and lowest averages per capita at €3,216 and €925 respectively.

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