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Grand Harbour towns – land of the single mother [DATA]
Single mums in Grand Harbour areas account for 10% of female population
1 July 2013, 12:00am
James Debono
James Debono
2 min read
One in every 10 women living in the inner harbour towns of Cospicua, Senglea, Xghajra and Valletta are registered as single mothers, statistics presented in parliament by social policy minister Marie Louise Coleiro Preca show.
An analysis of these statistics shows that the rate of single mothers in these four localities alone, is nearly three times higher than that for the whole of Malta - only 3.9% of the total female population are registered as single mothers.
The statistics also show single mums outnumbering single dads: while 8,457 are registered as single mothers, only 1,749 are registered as single fathers.
Interestingly, single fathers prevail in different localities than single mothers. The highest percentage of single dads is found in St Paul's Bay and Pembroke, respectively accounting for 1.7% and 1.5% of the male population of these two localities. On the other hand, only 0.7% of men living in Cospicua are registered as single dads.
The lowest percentage of single parents is found in the Gozitan villages of Munxar, Sannat, Zebbug, Xewkija, Kercem, San Lawrenz, Xaghra and Ghajnsielem.
In Malta, the lowest percentage of single parents are found in Dingli, Attard and Lija.
With the exception of St Paul's Bay, the eighth most populous town for single parents, the south of Malta has the 10 localities with the highest percentage of single parents. All top five localities are located around the Grand Harbour area.
Contrary to popular perception not all single parents are entitled to welfare benefits.
In fact while 10,206 persons in Malta are registered as single mothers or fathers, only 3,114 were receiving social assistance benefits. This means that less than 30% of single parents are living on benefits.
In Cospicua, of the 314 are registered as single parents, 137 were in receipt of this means-tested benefit, which is received by people who earn less than €48.12 a week. The maximum rate of assistance is €90.78 per week for a parent with one child, which is then increased by €8.15 per week for each additional child.
James Debono is MaltaToday's chief reporter on environment, planning and land use issues, ...
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When is it going to be compulsory for youngsters to follow sexual education classes at school and finally judge these cases with means tests. Subsidies should be given in form of vouchers not money as the child grows, to assure that the money given is spent on the children and only one child should recieve such subsidy, the rest is the promiscous mother's problem. I clearly remember a heavily pregnant woman telling her five children "ma nafx x'ha naghmel bihkom", perhaps she should have thought about it before getting pregnant with the sixth. This situation is ridiculous! However Coliero Preca sympathises with these people, so I doubt her ministry will do anything to control the situation.
