Gov't to recalculate poverty rate

from Ynet News

Will focus on examining quality of life instead of dry income figures, humanitarian groups welcome move

David Regev

A special team brought together by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson will soon reevaluate how poverty is currently measured in Israel.

The team will consider factoring in stipends as well as non-monetary support the individual citizen may be receiving as well as the determined quality of his life and a more detailed look at his property.

In its bi-annual poverty report the National Insurance Institute of Israel classifies individuals who earn less than half the average income as poor.

According to this calculation the most recent poverty cut stood at NIS 1,866. The most recent report , published last month, estimates therefore that 1.6 million Israelis are living below the poverty line, among these some 770,000 are minors.

The team is headed by Chief Government Statistician Prof. Shlomo Yitzhaki and also includes National Insurance Institute Director General Dr. Yigal Ben-Shalom and his deputy Dr. Leah Achdut as well as academics and officials from the finance ministry.


Throughout the reminder of the month citizens can submit ideas of their own to the team, which will take them into account before reaching its conclusions on the matter.

The team's final recommendation is expected to have a tremendous effect, leading to a possible significant downsizing or expansion of the estimated poverty rate.

At Latet, one of Israel's largest humanitarian aid organizations, administrators welcome the team's efforts to reexamine poverty rates using more variables than one's income.

"His health, place of residence, the economic situation of his family members, what type of job he has… all these variables must be taken into account. We must determine whether all these things provide him an adequate life, and if not – then he lives below the poverty line," says Latet.