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NEWS
Cuts in Child Allotments Affected Working Families
Most
by G. Kleiman
"The cut in Child Allowances left more children below the
poverty line. The poverty rate among children focuses on
working families. The cut in Children's Allotments did not
push recipients out into the job market [who were not there
before]," said Former Bank of Israel Deputy Governor Prof.
Tzvi Zussman during a child welfare conference in Be'er
Sheva.
Zussman refuted former Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's
claim that cutting Child Allowances would compel many people
to enter the job market. Zussman maintains that children in
wage-earning families are harmed in two ways: First, from the
cut in Children's Allowances since families with a wage-
earner typically have more children than families in which
the head of the household does not work. And second, from the
cut in Guaranteed Income (Havtachat Hachnasa), which
hits harder at low wage earners than at families without a
wage earner. Thus 92 percent of wage-earning families were
affected by the cut in Guaranteed Income compared to 62
percent of families with household heads who did not work.
Zussman insists the cuts should be stopped immediately and
calls for a resumption of the policy of more generous
allotments.
Current National Insurance Institute Director Dr. Yigal Ben
Shalom, who also participated at the conference, supported
Zussman's remarks and demanded that the next government stop
the cut in Children's Allowances and legislate a child's
rights law that would guarantee proper care for high-risk
children.
"The State and its institutions have failed the test of
protecting high-risk children," said Health Minister MK
Yaakov Edery.
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