Pensions and children’s allowance push social security spend up 4.7%

Social security benefits rose by 4.7 per cent in 2014, mainly resulting from increases in pensions in respect of retirement and children’s allowance.

Total social security benefits expenditure amounted to €852.9 million for 2014, reflecting a €38.5 million increase compared to 2013. Both contributory and non-contributory benefits registered an increase in outlay of €20.7 million and €17.8 million respectively.

Social security benefits outlay amounted to 10.7 per cent of GDP in 2014.

In 2014, contributory benefits expenditure totalled €645.7 million, 3.3 per cent higher than 2013. Pensions in respect of retirement recorded the largest rise in outlay of €13.5 million.

Further expenditure increases were registered under contributory bonus (€5.1 million) and pensions in respect of widowhood (€3.1 million). On the other hand, other benefits outlay declined by €0.9 million.

Non-contributory benefits expenditure increased by 9.4 per cent in 2014, reaching a total of €207.3 million. A rise in outlay was registered under each type of benefit, with children’s allowance (€8.1million) contributing most. This was followed by social assistance (€4.3 million), supplementary assistance (€2.0 million), old age pension (€1.4 million), disability pension/allowance (€1.3 million), medical assistance (€0.5 million) and non-contributory bonus (€0.1 million).

In the final quarter of 2014, the total outlay on social security benefits was €214.3 million, a 12.3 per cent increase from the same quarter in 2013. Both the outlays on contributory benefits (€11.5 million) and non-contributory benefits (€12.0 million) increased in comparison to the corresponding quarter in 2013. These were mainly due to increases in expenditure for pensions in respect of retirement (€3.7 million) and children’s allowance (€9.0 million) respectively.