UĦM Voice of the Workers Teams up with the Ministry for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children’s Rights and ĠEMMA on financial capability education
The Ministry for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children’s Rights and the UĦM Voice of the Workers today signed a strategic partnership to jointly work together, through ĠEMMA (the government’s financial capability education platform), towards improving the personal financial capability of Maltese and Gozitan citizens during life-events, including retirement, to enable them to reach better informed financial decisions that fit their individual circumstances.
An immediate outcome of this strategic partnership is that ĠEMMA will feature financial capability education resources to the UĦM Voice’s of the Workers membership base though the Union’s weekly e-newsletter. The first post will appear on the 10th of June. During the term of this strategic partnership, UĦM Voice of the Workers and ĠEMMA will also jointly undertake financial capability related initiatives, both on a national basis and as directs towards the Union’s members.
This is the 10th strategic partnership that Ministry for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children’s Rights has entered on behalf of ĠEMMA with other institutions and bodies. The other strategic partnership are with the Central Bank of Malta, the University of Malta, BOV, MAPFRE MSV Life, the General Workers Union, the eSkills Malta Foundation, Mental Health Malta, the Malta Chamber of SMEs, and the HSBC Malta Foundation.
Dr Michael Falzon, the responsible minister, stated that the fact that important bodies and institutions such as the UĦM Voice of the Workers entered into such strategic partnerships with ĠEMMA denotes the increasing understanding of societal stakeholders partnering up with government to instill a culture of financial capability within Malta – particularly so given the strong correlation between being financial capable and financial wellness and well being.
Dr Falzon further added that he is encouraged by the fact, that despite that ĠEMMA is still in its infancy, surveys show that 30% of Malta’s population are familiar with it, and those who have actively engaged with its portal and social media channels and other resources increased from 9% to 21% between March 2020 and 2021 and that the ‘likes’ on the ĠEMMA facebook page are nearly 17k.
Mr Josef Vella, Chief Executive Officer of UĦM of the Workers, emphasised on the importance of the strategic partnership on financial capability and retirement education with the Ministry though this Memorandum of Understanding. This underlines the Union’s belief on the importance of introducing the “Pension for Youth” which would complement the social security contributory pension and third pillar pensions. Mr Vella added that a partnership with ĠEMMA directed towards cultivating a culture of financial capability amongst youths will result in a stronger understanding for retirement planning and active action by them in this regard.
Mr Mark Musu, the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry, and who is responsible for the stewardship of ĠEMMA, also underlined that inculcating and securing a Malta that is financial capability is a societal objective – one in which government must play a key role, but an objective that a government on its own will not be able to reach. Mr Musu expressed his satisfaction that the joining up of strategic partners, such as today’s signing with UĦM Voice of the Workers with his ministry and ĠEMMA, unequivocally shows that there is a strong understanding from societal players, including the private sector, of the importance of such a joined up approach towards instilling a financial capable culture in Malta.
The ĠEMMA’s financial capability platform can be viewed at www.gemma.gov.mt.