On this page

1. Housing

2. Social services

3. Health care

4. Financial services

5. Quality assurance

Housing

A number of housing services and initiatives are offered through The Housing Authority has a number of housing services and initiatives from which young people may directly or indirectly benefit. Some of these schemes and services offered by the Housing Authority include:

• A grant to assist with the Construction and/or completion or rehabilitation of a first dwelling

• Installation of lifts in Government blocks to render them more accessible

• Rent subsidy to tenants on rents paid for their ordinary residence leased from the private sector 

• Scheme for persons with disability to provide financial aid and technical advice to persons with disability to carry out adaptation works related to their disability in their residence
  
   

• Sir Sid Darek to encourage residents of apartments/terraced houses and maisonettes owned by the Housing Authority and the Government Property Department to become owner occupiers and continue using the property as their ordinary residence

• Subsidy for adaptation works in owner-occupied, privately rented, or government-rented residences. Landlords of private dwellings rented to tenants can apply for assistance to eliminate dangerous structures only on one property. This aid helps to render premises in a habitable and acceptable standard

• Young people were enabled to become home-owners through, for example, the First Time Buyers Stamp Duty Relief Scheme, whereby first-time buyers can benefit from up to €5,000 in stamp duty on the purchase of immovable property.

In addition, Malta also provides a number of special housing facilities and residential settings for children and young people at risk of social exclusion, particularly those requiring out-of-home care. Aside from a number of residential homes for children, such as the Crèche run by the Ursuline Sisters, there are also a number of residential facilities for young people which include:

Fejda, managed by the Children in Need Foundation,  provides shelter and a safe environment for female adolescents who suffer from emotional and/or behavioural difficulties; 

Dar Osanna Pia provides professional intervention and shelter for young men aged 18 years and over who are experiencing various forms of crises and social difficulties;
 

Dar Niki Cassar is managed by YMCA and welcomes homeless young people.

Dar Victoria and Dar Franġisk are managed by Suret il-Bniedem Foundation and welcome people, including young people, who suffer from mental health problems.

Dar Tereza Spinelli managed by Suret il-Bniedem Foundation welcomes homeless, single women, girls aged between 15 and 18 and women with children

Dar Patri Leopoldo managed by Suret il-Bniedem Foundation welcomes homeless men and boys

Sedqa Agency (Aġenzija Sedqa) and Caritas Malta offer a number of residential settings for the rehabilitation of people with addictive behaviour

Appoġġ Agency (Aġenzija Appoġġ) also provides residential care to children and young people in need by offering a therapeutic programme to cater for children and young persons who require semi-secure residential accommodation, and providing adequate placements for children and young people who require out-of-home care and experience socio-emotional difficulties

Appoġġ Agency (Aġenzija Appoġġ) provides various residential facilities for persons with disabilities and a temporary residential programme to support these young people in their transitional phase to more permanent accommodation.

Efforts towards deinstitutionalisation support youths in transitioning to independent living, with pilot programmes to develop structured frameworks and timelines for interested stakeholders. A memorandum of understanding signed with the Housing Authority in December 2022 aims to support persons with disabilities in accessing accommodation.

Aġenzija Sapport's Social Work Services facilitate access to social services for persons with disabilities. The Agency is committed to providing quality services, which is evident in the launch of a Quality Audit, Risk, Research, and Innovation Department in January 2023. This department aims to enhance service quality and accessibility in line with best practices and UNCRPD guidelines. Furthermore, consultative committees ensure that service users, their relatives, and NGOs working in the disability sector can contribute to developing services and schemes, fostering continuous improvement.

Social services

Malta offers a number of social benefit provisions and in-kind which directly or indirectly assist young people experiencing poverty and social exclusion. The main social benefit provisions and in-kind benefits include:

Social assistance

The Government provides Social assistance  to each person aged 18 years or over, being a head of household who is deemed unfit for employment due to physical or mental illness; being a single parent or separated person who is unemployed because of family responsibilities; being a single person living alone or with anyone else not being his/her parents who is unemployed due to illness and; or persons considered as being unable to enter the labour market by Jobsplus. In addition, persons receiving social assistance are entitled to an energy benefit, while those living in privately rented accommodation are also entitled to a rent allowance.

Unemployment benefits are given to people who are 16 years of age or over, register with Jobsplus and satisfy a minimum of 50 paid social security contributions from their first employment and an average of 20 contributions in the two years before date of registering as unemployed, are entitled to the unemployment benefit. This benefit is intended to be a short-term measure lasting for a maximum period of 156 days, while a person is actively seeking employment. Following this period, the unemployed person may apply for long-term social assistance through unemployment assistance which is means tested. To qualify again for the unemployment benefit, the person must work for 91 continuous days (13 weeks) beginning from the 156th day of his/her previous unemployment benefit entitlement. 

The unemployment benefit, which is not means tested, is flat-rated and subject to a yearly percentage raise according to the cost-of-living allowance (COLA) granted in the national annual budget. Entitlement to this benefit is computed on a 6-day week basis.

Young people benefit from social welfare benefits through custodial care benefits, such as children's allowance, disabled child allowance, and foster care allowance, which are paid up to the age of 16 years. Young people aged 16 years and over who are certified by a Medical Panel appointed by the Minister for Social Policy and children’s Rights as suffering from a disability as listed in the Social Security Act Chapter 318 (section 27), are entitled for the disability pension (14 years old in case of visually impaired persons). 

Persons unable to continue working due to medical reasons are awarded an invalidity pension at a rate based on the number of social security contributions paid. A contributory invalidity pension is awarded to those persons who paid 250 contributions, completed a minimum of six months of uninterrupted employment or a year of Jobsplus’s Part 1 registration, and are found by the Social Security Department’s medical board to be permanently unable to work due to physical or mental illness. Eight different rates of invalidity pension are available, depending on the applicant’s civil status and his/her paid/or credited social security contributions.

All parents entrusted with the care and custody of their children (until children are aged less than 16 years) are given the Children’s Allowance as income benefit according to yearly income. Different rates apply depending on the family’s income earned. Additionally, apart from the Children’s Allowance, parents of children having physical and/or mental disability receive the Disabled Child Allowance. 

The Maternity Benefit is given to both unemployed and employed (including self-occupied) pregnant women. Unemployed pregnant women receive €94.35 per week, while employed pregnant women receive €175.84 per week. Those women who request an extension of the maternity leave will continue to receive this benefit up to four weeks under the Maternity Leave Benefit.

Parents or guardians of children aged from 0 to 3 years who are engaged in employment or in education are provided with free childcare services.

An after-school care service named Klabb 3-16 is provided from Monday to Friday to children between the ages of 3 and 16 years, attending State, Church or Independent schools. During school holidays, the service is available for children whose parents are following a course or employed.

The Tapering of Benefits aims to introduce persons receiving social assistance or unemployment assistance to the labour market after having registered for work for more than a year. When these persons engage in employment, the unemployment benefit or social assistance is not fully terminated but decreases for three years (65%, 45% and 25%). 

In-Work Benefit was introduced to parents (including single mothers) with children under the age of 23 years residing in the same household. Both parents are employed and earn a combined income between €10,000 and €24,630 per year are eligible, and the maximum rate per child per year is €1300. In the case of single parents, those earning between €6,600 and €17,130 are eligible, and the maximum payable rate per child per year is €1350. In case of one parent in employment earning between €6,600 and €17,130 are eligible and the maximum payable child per year is €550. 

Lifelong learning opportunities are provided at a low cost and aim to improve the educational and employment prospects of everyone, including young people.

Servizz Għożża provides services and educational programmes to pregnant minors, with the aim of encouraging them to adopt a positive attitude towards motherhood. 

 

Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) and the State Funded Food Distribution (SFFD): food packages distributed to the most vulnerable, including households with young people.

Health care

The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate promotes healthy lifestyles through initiatives in various settings including community, schools and the workplace through various mediums including social media. The main focus is on well-being, healthy eating, weight management, physical activity, tobacco prevention, oral health and smoking cessation, infectious disease prevention and sexual health.  This is done in collaboration with various entities including the Ministry of Education, Sport, Youth Research and Innovation; Ministry for Social Policy and Children’s Rights, Local Councils, Aġenzija Żagħżagħ, Sport Malta, NGOs and youth clubs. The opportunity is available for all to ensure accessibility to all.

Various strategies have been outlined including the Healthy Weight for Life strategy, Food and Nutrition Policy and Action Plan, Sexual Health policy and strategy, National Suicide Prevention Strategy; Health Enhancing Physical Activity Strategy and a National Health Systems Strategy for Malta.

Some examples of specific initiatives include Schools on the Move, 360º Project, Peers Training on Sexual Health and Tobacco Cessation.
 

Research projects are also carried out including the Health Behaviour Study in School Children managed by the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate, targeting young people aged 13 and 15 years and ESPAD, managed by the Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS) targets  secondary school students, the national food consumption survey, national physical activity survey across all age groups including a representative sample of young people.
 

Mental Health Services have specifically designed services for young people. A Crisis Intervention Service for children and adolescents is available from seven am to five pm at the Accident & Emergency at Mater Dei Hospital. Through this service, children and adolescents who are experiencing mental health-related issues can drop in and be reviewed by a psychiatric specialist and by a child and adolescent psychiatric nurse. If required, the client can be referred further to a psychologist or social worker.

Regular psychological services can also be accessed through the Child and Young People's Services.

In addition, for those young people requiring inpatient treatment, a new 12 bed unit has been set up just outside the perimeter of Mount Carmel Hospital. This Youth Residence provides a 24-hour protective, therapeutic environment with professional assessment and stabilisation of acute mental health issues. It provides both inpatient care facilities as well as therapeutic day programmes as part of a patients care plan. Access to on-going education at the appropriate developmental level also forms an essential criterion of the service.

Professional development for health care mediators is provided through training such as ‘Cultural Mediators in Health Care’. This is delivered to interested candidates by the Migrant Health Liaison Office within Primary Health Care.  The cultural mediation service is a collective effort between Mater Dei Hospital and the Primary Health Care Department.

Financial services

See Social Services.

Quality assurance

The Social Care Standards Authority regulates all social care services for vulnerable young people who may need or are receiving particular services due to a disability, addiction or because due to their current circumstances they are unable to take care of themselves or protect themselves against harm or exploitation. By regulating and inspecting such services, these young people are assured that the service empowers them to improve their life, preventing further harm, abuse or neglect, and supporting them through professional intervention. 

Social care comprises a substantial amount of service providers in distinct sectors, which affect society as a whole. The Social Care Standards Authority (SCSA) as a regulator needs to ensure equal treatment of the different service providers and lead same service providers to achieve greater quality of social well-being, from which society eventually benefits.

The Inspectorate within SCSA monitors and inspects social welfare services as per Chapter 582 Social Care Standards Authority Act 2018. It aims to work with service providers to ensure that persons making use of social welfare services are provided with safe, caring and receiving a high-quality service provision in line with established quality standards.

As per chapter 582 Social Care Standards Authority act 2018 the SCSA inspectorate is bound to carry out inspections in order to be able to monitor and review all operations involving the provision of social welfare services and ensure that these are in line with this SCSA Act or any other related Laws or regulations

Various tools and methodologies are applied in order to make sure that high quality inspections are carried out. Depending on the services that are provided the inspectorate uses a number of tools to assess the quality of care and compliance with standards.  Here are a number of inspection tools we use:

• Announced and Unannounced inspections

• Interviews

• Questionnaires and Checklists

• Vetting Documentation

• Monitoring and Reporting Systems

Healthcare Standards Directorate

The Healthcare Standards Directorate is responsible for regulating, inspecting, and licensing those establishments that provide a service that may impact public health and issue standards to support a service of excellence provided through this establishment. The key principles are to keep people safe, promote dignity and choice, and, last but not least, support independence. The values of the Standards Directorate are about being people-centered, transparent and accessible and finally be rigorous and fair, and actively involved to change for the better.

Housing Quality Assurance

Chapter 125 Housing Act aims to make  provision for securing living accommodation to the homeless, for ensuring a fair distribution of living accommodation and for the requisitioning of buildings.

Financial Quality Assurance

Chapter 174 Financial Administration and Audit Act aims to regulate the receipt, control and disbursement of public money, to provide for the audit of accounts in relation thereto, and to provide for other matters connected with or incidental to the purposes aforesaid.