The Government recognises that the pension system is designed for a traditional family: where the bread winner is the male and to qualify for the full pension that person has to work for a long period – 35 years if you are born between 1952 and 1961, and 40 years if you are born on and after 1962.
This pension system penalises you if you are a working mother. In Malta’s society it is invariably the female spouse who exits the labour market to bring up the child following birth. The period you may spend with your child after his or her birth varies from family to family: some return to work within months, others after the child’s early years, and others still even later during the education cycle of their child until he or she are in a position to fend for his or herself.
Whatever period you take out to rear your child the impact is that during that period you will not earn a wage or salary and hence you and your employer will not pay your social security contribution.
This means that you will have gaps in your social security contribution history. As a result of these gaps, therefore, you will not be in a position to receive a full pension.
To address this issue of gaps in your contributory history as a result of child rearing the government has introduced a system that pays social security contributions for the purpose of your pension – known as credits – for the time you take out of your employment. The beneficiary of such credits for child rearing can be either yourself or your spouse.
If you are born on or after 1962
If you are born on or after 1962 you will qualify for credits to your pension history for child rearing as is shown in the Table below. As you can see from the Table below you will receive a 4 year credit for every child up to the third child. You will receive this entitlement irrespective of whether you decide to spend your time with your family or you return to work.