PN proposes €650 annual pension increase, free home doctor service

The Nationalist Party unveiled a broad package of proposals for elderly people and pensioners on Monday, with party leader Alex Borg presenting the measures alongside election candidates Graham Bencini and Paula Mifsud Bonnici. "Our elderly built our families, Malta and Gozo," Borg said. "They made great sacrifices so that we could reach where we are today." He said elderly people should never be treated as "an afterthought" and framed the package as a permanent commitment rather than a pre-election gesture. The most significant care-home proposal would cap the State's retention of a government care-home resident's income at 50%, down from the current 80%, so that residents keep at least half of what they receive.

For those in private care homes, the existing tax credit would rise from €4,500 to €7,000. On pensions, the PN is promising a guaranteed annual increase of at least €650 every year, described as a recurring commitment built into the system rather than a one-off payment. The independent-living grant, paid to elderly people who remain in their own homes, would be restructured across three age bands.

Those aged 80 and over would see their grant double from €525 to €1,050 a year; the 75–79 group would rise from €425 to €850; and a new €500 annual grant would be created for people aged 70–74, who currently receive nothing under the scheme. Bencini outlined changes to private pension saving. The annual contribution ceiling for the Personal Retirement Scheme would increase from €3,000 to €4,000, with the existing 25% tax credit kept in place — pushing the maximum annual tax credit from €750 to €1,000.

A separate annual grant for people who spent years out of the workforce raising families would be doubled to €2,000. Mifsud Bonnici focused on health access and retirement preparation. Under the PN proposals, elderly people living at home would be entitled to register with a doctor of their choice; follow-up appointments and home visits would be included in their care plan.

A nationwide free home-delivery service for all prescribed medicines would be introduced within the first year of a Nationalist administration, aimed in particular at those with limited mobility or no reliable access to transport. A structured pre-retirement training programme would begin two years before a person's retirement date and cover financial planning, health and wellbeing, volunteering, creative activities, and digital literacy.

Participation would be voluntary. Around 5,000 workers retire in Malta every year, all of whom would be eligible. The package also includes a pension supplement for grandparents caring for grandchildren under the age of three, worth up to €2,000 per child annually, designed to run alongside the existing free childcare system.

Borg said thousands of grandparents in Malta currently dedicate up to 40 hours a week to that role. Borg closed by pointing to previous Nationalist administrations' record on elderly services — home help, nurse-at-home schemes, the POYC medicine distribution system, Telecare, and Meals on Wheels — as the groundwork on which the new proposals build.