777,400 Children among the Poor

April 7, 2009

Photo by Isranet

NII Director General Esther Dominisini told Ynet [that] December [2008] saw a 22% rise in the number of new claims filed at the institute. Dominisini blamed the recent rise on the economic crisis, saying, “Whether the situation gets worse depends on the continuation of the crisis. The longer it lasts, the more people might cross under the poverty line. There is also a new characteristic now—people who are currently categorized as middle class who were fired from their jobs. If the crisis continues and they are unemployed for a long time, their standard of life will decline and they will also be included in the category of poor.”

According to the report on the period between July 2007 and June 2008, the poverty severity index rose by 2% compared to the last report. Single-parent families experienced a particularly sharp rise, while the situation for the elderly, immigrants, Arabs, and youth has actually improved slightly.

NII Deputy Director General of Research and Planning Daniel Gottlieb told Ynet, “However, this [report] does not include the data from the months of the (economic) crisis, and in the coming report, we will see a different picture. The situation now is much worse because of the crisis and also because of the [Gaza] war.” According to the report, there were 418,000 poor families living in Israel in the above period that included 1,631,000 people, out of which 777,400 were children.

Excerpts from an article by Yael Branovsky, Ynetnews.com

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