[Israel] Caesarea Forum: Poverty becoming more severe

from Globes Business online

Israel is not a welfare state, and is ranked last among Western countries in terms of welfare payments.

“Every talks about the number of poor, but the biggest increase in recent years has been in the depth of poverty, not in its prevalence,” said Dr. Maymon Dahan of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the team leader of a report for the Israel Democracy Institute's Caesarea Forum.

Figures published today using the proportional method used in most developed countries, indicate that the proportion of poor families in Israel exceeded 20% of all families for the first time in 2004, amounting to over 1.5 million people. Poverty was stable at 17.5% in 1996-2002, when it began to rise, reaching 20.5% in 2004. Put another way, every fifth Israeli is poor, compared with every tenth person in the UK.

Dahan said the deepening of poverty was just as severe as the increase in the number of poor. The report found that the average income of a poor person was 33% less than the poverty line in 2004, compared with 25% less in 1998-2000.

One of the report’s interesting findings was Israel’s rank in terms of welfare payments. “In utter contrast to Israel’s perception as a welfare state, we are definitely not one,” said Dahan. Figures indicate that Israel is behind all Western countries, except for Greece, in terms of welfare payments.

Old-age pensions in Israel, a person’s basic income after retirement, were among the lowest in Western countries in 2004, amounting to 25% of average income. Old-age pensions in the UK amounted to 40% of average income, in Sweden - 60%; and in Spain - 89%. Israel’s ranking improved when old-age pensions for the elderly without other sources of income were raised in 2005. This trend is expected to continue in 2007 if the coalition agreement with Gil Pensioners Party is implemented.

The maximum number of days an unemployed person is eligible for unemployment insurance in Israel is the lowest in the world - 175 days, compared with 273 in the US, 450 days in Ireland, and 1,800 days in France.