Social expenditure rises

Social protection expenditure in Cyprus as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) moved up from 19.9 in 2010 to 22 per cent in 2015, versus respective averages of 28.6 and 29 per cent across the European Union (EU), Eurostat announced on Friday.
Out of this amount 6.2 per cent went to the families and children category, 5.7 per cent to unemployment benefits, 25.5 per cent to sickness, healthcare and disability, 54.9 per cent to old age and survivors and 7.7 to housing and social exclusion.
In 2015, the two main sources of funding of social protection at EU level were social contributions, making up 54 per cent of total receipts, and general government contributions from taxes at 43 per cent.
In the same year, social protection expenditure represented at least 30 per cent of GDP in France (34 per cent), Denmark and Finland (both 32 per cent) and Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and Italy (all 30 per cent).
In contrast, social protection expenditure stood below 20% of GDP in Romania and Latvia (both 15 per cent), Lithuania and Estonia (both 16 per cent), Ireland (17 per cent), Malta, Bulgaria and Slovakia (all 18 per cent) as well as in the Czech Republic (19 per cent).
On average in the EU, old age and survivors benefits accounted for 45 per cent of total social benefits in 2015 and made up the major part of social protection benefits in nearly all member states.
The share of old age and survivors benefits in the total was highest in Greece (65 per cent), Italy and Portugal (both 58 per cent), Romania and Cyprus (both 55 per cent), while it was lowest in Ireland (33 per cent), Luxembourg and Germany (both 39 per cent), the United Kingdom (41 per cent) and Belgium (42 per cent).
Sickness, healthcare and disability benefits accounted for 37 per cent of total social benefits on average in the EU in 2015.
Among member states, the share of these benefits ranged from 26 per cent in Cyprus and Greece to over 40 per cent in Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Slovakia.
Family and children benefits accounted for slightly less than 9 per cent of total social benefits on average in the EU in 2015, unemployment benefits for 5 per cent and housing and social exclusion benefits for 4 per cent.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.