“Yediot Ahronot”: Every third child in Israel below poverty line

Globes’ correspondent    27 Oct 03   16:45

The “Yediot Ahronot” Hebrew daily reports that tens of thousands of children have joined the ranks of the poor, and are suffering from malnutrition, inadequate clothing, and a lack of textbooks.

The National Insurance Institute said that the number of poor children in Israel had reached 600,000 for the first time, signaling that almost every third child in Israel was below the poverty line. The number of poor families has jumped to 350,000, compared with 319,000 in the preceding year. The number of poor people now stands at 1.3 million, compared with 1.1 million in the preceding year.

The figures were included in the National Insurance Institute’s annual report on poverty, to be published next month. The figures are for 2002, and the National Insurance Institute fears that the figures for 2003 will be even worse, due to the harsh economic measures, including the cuts in child allowances. “Israel is on the way to becoming the country with the highest poverty rate in the Western world,” the report warned.

For the first time, a document written by a team headed by Dr. Leah Ahdut will be attached to the National Insurance Institute report, stressing the effect of the cuts on the disadvantaged population. The figures show that the cuts would cost 70% of poor people in Israel over NIS 400 per month.

The figure also showed that 301,000 children lived in families receiving income supplements in 2002, 8% more than the 278,000 children who lived in such families in 2001. The sole income of these families is a NIS 2,240 income supplement for a family of four.