Page 215 Thursday, 20th October, 1955, at the Palace, Valletta, Malta, at 2·30 p.m.
Witnesses attending:
Professor Caruana Galizia. Dr. Mizzi.
Thursday, 20th October, 1955, at the Palace, Valletta, Malta, at 3·45 p.m.
Witnesses attending:
Mr. Vella.
Mr. Marmara.
Mr. Griscti.
Mr. Campbell Fraser.
Saturday, 22nd October, 1955, at the Palace, Valletta, Malta, at 10·20 a.m.
Witnesses attending:
Mr. Miller. Mr. Kingswell. Mr. Borg.
APPENDIX E
SOCIAL SERVICES IN MALTA
Social Service Benefits
At present, only the following social service benefits are available to the Maltese population: medical relief, old-age pensions, social assistance and workmen's compensation. Special benefits are paid (subject to a means test which takes capital into account) to families of leprosy patients, to tuberculosis patients and/or their families, and for outdoor medical relief. A special milk subsidy is paid for babies.
2. Old-age pensions are non-contributory and are subject to a means test. The rates vary according to means, but the maximum pension is 16s. a week. Social assistance is available, after a strict means test, to destitute households. (It is not available to a household whose head is fit for work, even if he is unemployed, and the “potential" wages of all fit adults are taken into account in paying rates of relief whether or not they are actually earning these wages.) The rates of assistance range from 16s. a week for a single person to 61s. a week for a household of six or more. Workmen's compensation is contributory. The contribution is 2d. a week (1d. from the employer and ld. from the employee), and the benefits are in two forms— allowances and pensions. The maximum allowance is 3s. a day for up to one year, after which, in the case of permanent and complete incapacity. a pension of 12s. a week plus Is. for each child is payable. Other benefits are available for permanent, or temporary, partial injuries, and for the widows, orphans, or other dependants of victims of fatal accidents.
3. The Government of Malta has recently announced plans to introduce a comprehensive scheme of social insurance, following the pattern of, but not reproducing, the United Kingdom scheme. The scheme will absorb the present Workmen's Compensation and Widows' Pension scheme, and will include benefits for sickness, unemployment, old age, widows, orphans, and industrial injuries, and marriage grants. It is also proposed to provide a new National Assistance Scheme which will replace the present schemes for
socialpervices assistance and outdoor medical relipfage 215 of 321
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Health Services
4. Health Services are provided by the Medical and Health Department. For every town or village there is a District Medical Office, who, in antion to administrative duties, visits patients in their homes or sees them at a Government dispensary, where he dispenses medicines, appliances, &c. If necessary, he can send a patient to a specialist or to one of the Government hospitals. Where treatment is not available locally, passages to the United Kingdom may be paid for patients sponsored for treatment under the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. The total number of hospital beds is about 3,200 and usually over 90 per cent. are occupied. Poor people pay nothing for these services. Those who can afford to pay must make a small contribution towards the cost of their treatment. Other services include child health clinics, school medical services and free milk for school- children, and the Government services are supplemented by voluntary bodies.
Education
5. Compulsory education was introduced in Malta in 1946. As a result of rapid increases in population and the complete cessation of school building between 1931 and 1944, accommodation for schoolchildren had become very scarce. Until recently, a large proportion of all schoolchildren were receiving part-time education and some 20 per cent were not attending school at all. The Government of Malta has put into effect an extensive programme of primary and technical education, and teacher training. It has eliminated part- time attendance of children in primary schools, and a sixth form has been added to secondary schools. School fees in secondary schools have been abolished, and books are provided free of charge in primary schools.
Expenditure on Social Services
6. The estimated total expenditure on social services in 1955-56 (with figures of actual expenditure in 1954-55 in brackets), is as follows:-
Social Welfare Health ...
Education
Subsidies
...
...
Total
...
...
£ million
0.8 (0.5)
1.4 (1.2)
1-1 (0-8)
...
0.8 (0·6)
4.1 (3.1)
256
(representing £13 (£9) per head of population.)
APPENDIX F
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE ISLANDS OF MALTA AND GOZO
Malta, 15th June, 1802:
We, the members of the Congress of the Islands of Malta and Gozo and their dependencies, by the free suffrage of the people, during the siege, elected to represent them on the important matter of ascertaining our native rights and privileges (enjoyed from time immemorial by our ancestors who, when encroached upon, have shed their blood to regain them), and of fixing a Constitution of Government, which shall secure to us and our descendants in perpetuity, the blessings of freedom and the rights of just law, under the protection and Sovereignty of the King of a free people, His Majesty the