To the Editor:
With regard to the proposal presented to Knesset Chairman Mr.
Reuven Rivlin to summon the Knesset members and to hold a
discussion on the poverty report specifically in Bnei Brak,
the city defined as the "most impoverished," I would like to
make two comments as follows:
1. A survey was held on the rate of employment in Bnei Brak
which shows that every household in the city (excluding the
elderly) has [on the average] one-and-a-third people
working.
Based on this fact any sensible person can see that the
increasing poverty there, which is reaching record levels, is
not because of false claims the Finance Ministry lodges
morning and night about "the lack of integration in the work
force," but rather that the reasons are to be found in the
inferior economic state and the low wage level of workers who
find it difficult to bring bread home to their children
[after] the policy of cuts in allowances by the NRP-Shinui-
Likud government directly harmed hundreds of thousands of
families and gained notoriety.
Former [Bituach Leumi] Director-General Prof. Yochanan
Shtessman even took the unprecedented step of resigning from
his post.
2. The former Welfare Minister is currently unashamed to
raise an outcry and proclaim while the NRP was in the
government it stanched the gap and prevented large cuts in
allowances.
The public should recall and know that the NRP was among the
partners and initiators of the bill to cut children's
allowances, which was tabled under the headline, "An equal
allowance for every child." This bill, which unfortunately
passed, was also submitted by an MK from Shinui. The primary
focus was to give two allowance points for every child, with
no consideration for the number of children and the size of
the family.
The explanatory material for the bill stated in part that the
cost of maintaining an additional child is less than the
first and second children, and therefore it was proposed that
all children receive an identical allowance.
This is Bituach Leumi Bill P/3687 (Children's Allowance
Amendment) of 5762/2002, which was submitted by MKs Yigal
Bibi, Zevulun Orlev, Nachum Langental and Shaul Yahalom. A
similar bill was tabled in the Knesset on 24 Iyar 5762 (5-6-
2002).
With blessings,
Nosson Greenberg
Former Deputy Director, Bituach Leumi
