Free childcare cut leaves non-EU families rethinking children in Malta

Times of Malta reported that the measure affects non-EU people without long-term residency, a status that can only be obtained after five years of living and working in Malta and after completing the I Belong integration programme, which the newspaper said has long waiting lists.

For Aastha Grover Rana, a 29-year-old from India, the policy lands in the middle of ordinary family calculations. She told Times of Malta that she and her husband, who came to Malta through official channels and were granted permission to live and work there, had discussed having a second child after having a daughter in 2023. “We were discussing having a second child, but now it’s a big no,” she said.

Her objection, as reported by the newspaper, was about cost and about unequal treatment. “This is not only about the money. It’s about discrimination,” she said. “I don’t have a problem paying for buses, but I have a problem with discrimination. It’s not fair.”

That is the sharper edge of this measure. It does not describe people outside the system. The example in the report is a family living and working in Malta, paying taxes, and now being told that support at one of the most expensive and time-sensitive points in family life depends on a residency category they have not yet reached.

The same report said those without long-term residency are also facing higher renewal fees, the loss of free public transport and additional driving licence fees. Rana told the newspaper that her household now has to decide whether to keep paying for a car or absorb monthly public transport costs for two adults. In her account, the sums are not incidental; they shape how a family gets to work, gets a child to school and decides what is still manageable.

Times of Malta also reported concern from childcare centres that mainly serve these families. If parents pull children out because childcare is no longer free, some centres fear closure.

Rana said she had not previously experienced hostility but felt attitudes had shifted since the budget speech. “We were not seeing bad words before, but now we are hearing comments like, ‘Leave if you don’t like it’,” she told the newspaper. “This is sad because I love my Maltese friends from the heart.”