Starting this week, Israel’s National Insurance Institute (the local equivalent of Social Security) will pay out increased child benefits, in keeping with the coalition agreement between the Likud and the ultra-Orthodox. The cuts established by former Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) on children’s allowances have been annulled, and in addition to the increased payments recipients will also get a retroactive one-time payment going back to May of this year. The agreement also includes savings accounts for each child, starting in January 2017, in which the state will deposit $12.50 in cash every month, and the savings would be made available to them at the age of 18. At today’s interest rates, this should come to about $3,000.
NII reported that the allowance for the first child will increase roughly from $35 to $37.5, and for the second, third and fourth child it will grow roughly from $35 to $47 a month; and from the fifth child on, the allowance will be $37.50. In addition, for children born before May 31, 2003, starting from the fourth child, the benefits will remain higher: the fourth child will receive roughly $84 a month, and from the fifth child on — roughly $88.5 a month.
According to the Poverty Report of the National Insurance Institute, published earlier this month, large families constitute more than half the families living below the poverty line in Israel, as a result of the reduction in child allowances, which began in August 2013 at the initiation of Lapid’ party Yesh Atid, which made cutting down Haredi dependence on the dole a priority in its election campaign.
According to the report, In 2014, 444,900 families, or 1,709,300 people, including 776,500 children, were living in poverty. Israel has more than 1.7 million poor people, of whom approximately 780,000 are children. The rate of families living in poverty increased from 18.6% to 18.8%; the incidence of poverty also increased slightly, from 21.8% to 22.0%; and the rate of children living in poverty increased from 30.8% to 31.0%.