'We can't afford paying utilities, let alone TV sets - GWU

According to the Eurobarometer study, the new utilities’ tariffs were most important problem that “hundreds of Maltese families” were facing. The Eurobarometer survey had placed Malta “among the first, if not the first country, where families have to struggle to cope with daily expenses,” the GWU insisted.

It quoted from the Eurobarometer survey which showed that 7.2% of the Maltese had fallen behind in the payment of utility bills, while 13% did not have enough money to buy essential goods. “All this proves the GWU right when, together with 10 other Unions in the Għaqda Unions Maltin, had worked steadfastly so that the new utilities’ tariffs are not introduced,” the Unioninsisted.

However, the government “persisted in its stubbornness” and imposed the tariffs from 1 January 2010, the GWU added. The Eurobarometer survey also showed that 32 per cent of Maltese were “in a constant fight to cope with the basic daily necessities. On top of this battle they placed the water and electricity tariffs,” the GWU added.

Taking a jibe at a report published in The Times which claimed massive sales for television sets ahead of the 2010 World Cup, which started on 11 June, the GWU insisted that the Eurobarometer’s scientific survey “contradicted those who all of a sudden expected to have become experts and because only a few television sets were bought before the World Cup, were implying that everything was rosy in our country”.

In view of all this, the GWU reiterated its call for the covernment to take corrective measures “to alleviate the burdens that the government itself has saddled on the people... These are burdens that it is resulting clearly that hundreds of families were not able to carry anymore,” the GWU concluded its statement.

The latest Eurobarometer on poverty pubished by Eurostat showed that 41% of Maltese were finding difficult for the family to pay their normal bills, buy food and other consumables. The survey found one European in six reported “a constant struggle to pay household bills and three quarters believe that poverty has increased in their country over the past year.”

The survey, carried out in May 2010, marked the halfway mark of the 2010 European Year against poverty and came after EU leaders agreed on 17 June 2010 to lift 20 million Europeans out of poverty and social exclusion over the next decade. In total, 41% of Maltese respondents answered that their household was struggling constantly to keep up with bills and credit commitments or had fallen behind with some or many such payments.

Malta just ranked below Bulgaria (44%), Portugal (46%), Latvia (48%) and Greece – 58% – hit this year by one of the worst financial crises ever. 36.9% of the Maltese also believed poverty has ‘slightly increased’ and 27.9% say it has ‘strongly increased’.

On pensions, 19.8% said they believed they would get lower pensions in future, 19% said they would have to retire later than originally planned, and 24% felt they must save more for their retirement. However, the survey found positive trends in the Maltese psyche: 39.8% felt very confident and 40.6% felt fairly confident they wouldn’t lose their job.