Number of welfare recipients down
Decrease in number of government welfare payout recipients is a result of stricter eligibility criteria, rather than economic improvement, national insurance institute report says.
An average number of about 53,000 people a month received unemployment allowance this year, compared with approximately 60,000 last year, an annual decrease of 13 percent, the report said.
However, the decrease in the numbers of unemployment allowance recipients must not deceive us, Institute, director Dr. Yigal Ben Shalom said Wednesday.
People to become poorer
"This decrease is the result of a tightening of the eligibility criteria. This year only about 20 percent of job seekers were eligible for unemployment allowance, in comparison with 40 to 50 percent a few years ago," he said.
"This indicates that the legislators' stance on unemployment is not fully realized," Ben Shalom said, alluding to the fact many jobless people who used to get unemployment allowance remain out of work but are no longer counted, because they are not eligible for payouts.
Sources at the National Insurance Institute said Wednesday that many of these jobless can be found in the latest poverty report, while countless others will be pushed into poverty in the coming year.
Eligibility criteria changed
Other figures showed that in the last year 144,300 families per month on average received a guaranteed a low-income stipend, compared to 149,700 the year before.
This represents a decrease 3.2 percent decrease, and a stabilization in the number of stipend recipients.
On the other hand, the number of handicapped eligible for a disability stipend has risen this year by six percent, from 160,000 to 170,000.
Sources at the Institute explained that the increase was a result of the fact the minimum age for eligibility to old-age stipends has been raised, causing many handicapped people who were supposed to receive an old-age pension to continue getting a disability stipend instead.
