Pension — frequently asked questions
Short answers to the questions most often asked about the Malta contributory old-age pension, each tied to the cited provision of the Social Security Act (Cap. 318).
Who qualifies for the Two-Thirds Pension?
Anyone who has reached pension age and holds at least 10 years of insurance as an employed, self-employed or self-occupied person (art. 52(a)).
How much do I need to have contributed?
A yearly average of 50 paid or credited contributions earns the full two-thirds proportion (art. 53(1)). An average as low as 15 still qualifies for a reduced pension; below that, nothing is payable under this route (art. 55). See how the pension is calculated.
Is there a minimum and a maximum pension?
Yes. The Guaranteed Minimum Level is €198.50/week for someone married and maintaining a spouse, €194.50/week for any other person, and the full Two-Thirds Pension can never exceed €281.64/week — all stated as weekly rates.
Can I retire early?
No. No general early-old-age-pension route (a reduced pension available before pension age) was found in Part V. The corpus's "early retirement" hits (arts. ~61-61A region) concern a public-sector own-business pensionable-income substitution, not a route to draw an old-age pension early.
Does the pension increase every year?
art. 90A: whenever Government awards a cost-of-living increase in the rate of the National Minimum Wage under the Employment and Industrial Relations Act, every pension payable under Cap. 318 is automatically increased — from the date of that award, or the date the pension becomes due, whichever is later — by an amount equal to two-thirds of the cost-of-living increase, unless a higher increase is already due under the Act's own provisions (in which case, save as the Sixth and Twelfth Schedules separately provide, art. 90A does not apply). A married National Minimum Pension recipient's share was four-fifths rather than two-thirds until this was withdrawn with effect from 1 January 2018.
Is the Two-Thirds Pension the only pension Malta pays?
No. Cap. 318 arts. 44-51 (Retirement Pension / Increased Retirement Pension / National Minimum Pension / Guaranteed National Minimum Pension, priced off the Twelfth Schedule Tables A-C's flat weekly rates) remain live law, extended by art. 48's 2018 proviso to every insured person regardless of first-entry date. art. 57 pays whichever of that route and the Two-Thirds Pension modelled in this formula block is more advantageous to the claimant. This payload does not compute the flat-Schedule route or the art. 57 comparison — a claimant's actual weekly pension may be the flat-Schedule amount, not the Two-Thirds figure this formula produces, and no consumer of this payload may treat the Two-Thirds result as final without also pricing the alternative.