On the eve of Rosh Hashanah in 2008, some million Israelis are registered in Israel's
welfare system, 24% of those for reasons of extreme poverty. Half of the applicants at the welfare ministry are of working age.
Jerusalem has the largest number of welfare recipients in the country, with some 118,000 applications for aid.
In the first eight months of 2008, the Welfare Ministry treated 1,246.978 citizens. In comparison, only 1,270,896 applied for welfare in the whole of 2007.
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The welfare ministry explains the phenomenon as due to increased incidences of violence, the deterioration of the community structure, an increase of poverty, decreased faith in the establishment and decreased capabilities for local authorities to provide social services.
The Welfare Ministry's report indicates that 187,643 citizens approached the ministry in the past eight months to apply for financial assistance (in comparison to 200,039 all last year), 170,298 applied for senior assistance (as opposed to 164,093 in 2007) and 29,730 opened violence-related case files (in comparison to 30,408 during the whole of 2007).
The ministry claims that there are a number of central problems in treating the needy this year. Among other things, they state that recent legislation to increase social services has not been accompanied by the provision of personnel. Additionally, they decried government decisions to limit an increase in case workers.
The personnel shortage creates severe delays in dealing with case files, particularly in pro bono legal services and centers for victims of domestic violence.
The welfare budget in 2008 was meant to be 3.6 million NIS (approximately $1.05 million), with the brunt earmarked for people with disabilities (40%) and at-risk youth (25%). The rest is intended for local authorities (10%), rehabilitation programs (10%), administration (7%), pensioners (3%) and families (3%).
In the past year, the welfare ministry attempted to promote a number of initiatives in the weaker sectors of societies. For example, they allocated over a billion shekel to a national project for at-risk children treated by the most problematic of the state's local authorities.
Additionally, they re-launched a project to incorporate people with disabilities back into the workforce, after this project had been frozen for almost a decade.
Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog also set up a committee to examine and implement a report by the Dorner Commission, which had ruled in favor of increased financial support to Holocaust survivors.
Additionally, the ministry has attempted to increase awareness and reporting of sexual assault and to improve battered women's shelters.
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