80,000 vulnerable people and 37,000 households will benefit from second COLA

Minister for Finance, Clyde Caruana, announced that 80,000 people and 37,000 households will be benefiting from a second cost of living adjustment (COLA).

During a press conference on Monday, he revealed that this will be implemented for those people who were most vulnerable, such as people on social benefits or pensioners.

He did not reveal more than that and said that the full details of the second COLA will be released in a week’s time on the day of the budget.

When asked a question about Air Malta, he said that there have been 350 employees who have applied for early retirement. However, he said that the full sum of how much each worker was receiving still had to be calculated.

Once again he said that he is having discussions with the European Commission to decide the future of Air Malta. However, he pledged that Malta will have a national airline.

Speaking at a press conference to launch a book on the measures from the 2022 budget that were implemented, Caruana saud that this year 324 measures came into force. This number includes the measures from Budget 2022 and also previous Budgets.

It was also revealed that 77% of the measures of Budget 2022 were carried out, which is 4% higher than the average of 73%.

Among some of the measures carried out there are, new health centres, more free medicine, a larger spread of community policing, new green spaces, an increase in student stipends, free public transport, increase in pensions and reduced tax for part-time workers.

Caruana highlighted how all these measures were carried out during a year full of challenges.

He mentioned how despite the worldwide struggle, Malta is still managing to protect its citizens and he said that the economy is set to grow more by next year.

He compared this to other governments which were not even capable of protecting their citizens, such as Italian families who were seeing an increase of €4,700 in their utility bills.