In 2004 the Government issued the ‘White Paper: Adequate and Sustainable Pensions for future Generations’, which set off a comprehensive reform process of the pension system, which is still underway to date. Within the context of the reform, ‘future generations’ were defined as born in and after 1962, termed as ‘switchers’. This cohort of persons was placed on new pension parameters, including:
- Increase of retirement age from 61 to 65 years of age.
- Increase the contributory history to qualify for a full pension from 30 to 40 years.
- Calculation of maximum pension entitlement from 3 best consecutive years from the last 10 years to the average of the best 10 years
- Increase the Maximum Pensionable Income based on an indexation mechanism of 70% wage inflation: 30% retail inflation.
In 2005 and 2010, the then Pension Working Group commissioned the National Statistics Office to survey the public’s perceptions of the pension system.
The results were concerning, showing that most persons were not aware of how the state pension system works. In May 2021, ĠEMMA carried out a National survey amongst persons born in and after 1962 to obtain empirical evidence concerning their understanding of how the pension system works.
ĠEMMA places the survey instruments in English and Maltese and the microdata for public use by researchers and parties interested in the financial capability policy area.