Poverty Report: Declining middle-class incomes, worsening children's and elderly status

In 2018, Israel is still ranked among the leading poverty rates for the elderly and children, as well as the poverty gap between women and men. The aggravation also applies to the situation of multiple single-parent families

Poverty Report: Declining middle-class incomes, worsening children's and elderly status

(Video: Poverty Report 2017)

In 2018, there were 469,400 families in poverty in Israel, including 1,810,500, according to the poverty report published Tuesday by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Director of Social Security Meir Spiegeler. About 841,700 of the citizens living below the poverty line in Israel are children. Poverty) headed by seniors increased from 21.8% in 2017 to 23.4% in 2018. The proportion of elderly people living in poverty has also increased from 17.2% to 18.8% between years.

The depth of poverty in Israel, the gap between the introduction of families and the poverty line itself, has also increased from 27.7% to 32% during 2018. Thus, the income of poor families, headed by the elderly, has moved away from the poverty line by more than 0.4%. The severity of poverty, according to the FGT Index, has also increased, although the indicators of the depth of poverty and the severity of poverty indicate that it is significantly lower in post-retirement families among younger age groups.

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The proportion of poor families headed by seniors has risen (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Collecting bottles for deposit. Givatayim, August 2016 (Photo: Reuven Castro)

The incidence of poverty among the elderly, as opposed to families headed by the elderly, has risen to the highest level since 2013 and stands at 18.8% compared to 17.2% the previous year. The relatively sharp increase in the incidence of poverty for the elderly has occurred despite policies to increase the disposable income of senior citizens who provide low income from pensions and savings. Social Security explains this by claiming that the rate of increase in the standard of living of the elderly has not kept up with the rate of increase in income of the general population.

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Increase in poverty indices of large families and single-parent families

The incidence of poverty for families with children representing more than half of the total poor families decreased slightly from 2017 to 2018 from 21.6% to 21.4%. Poverty depth and poverty measures also decreased by 5% and 7%, respectively. In contrast, there was an increase in the poverty indices of large families of four or more children and single-parent families.

Also, in 2018, the gaps between men and women widened. Examining the incidence of poverty by gender groups shows that that of women increased by 0.2% between 2017 and 2018, while that of men slipped by 0.8%, so that overall the gender gap expanded by a full percentage between these years.

Gaps between women and men have widened (Photo: Reuven Castro)

South of Tel Aviv. March 2015 (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Policy gaps also narrow the gap on the impact of poverty by gender, and in 2018 policy measures rescued 31.6% of men and 34.1% of women, compared with 30.3% to 34.2% in 2017, respectively. The poverty-level gaps in measurement according to economic income are much higher, reaching 21%.

The National Insurance Institute says that the growth of the economy and the increase in employment and wages in 2018 led to a rise in the standard of living. The disposable financial income per standard person increased by 4.1% in real terms in 2018 and accordingly the derived poverty line also rose.

Report of the National Insurance Institute's poverty and social disparities in 2018 (Photo: screenshot)

Proud of achievements to improve poverty, the trends are different. Director of Social Security Meir Spiegeler (Photo: Ariel Klein, JNF)

Comparison of disposable income inequality data among developed countries indicates a deterioration in Israel's situation in this area, and now stands with the Gini index at about 10% of the average index in developed countries, compared with 5% in 2017.

Declining middle-income level

In most OECD member countries, including Israel, about one-half to two-thirds of the population belong to the middle class. In 2017 and 2018, the share of our middle class income fell from 60.8% to 60.1%, due to the transition of some of the income into classes that are in poverty or at risk of poverty. At the same time, the proportion of the upper middle class decreased during the same period, compared with an increase of about 2% in the proportion of the upper class from 9.4% to 6.7%.

A broader view also shows that the low middle-class who are at risk of poverty and the upper middle-class also show that the middle-class share of total income decreased in 2018 to 84.1% compared to 86% in 2017, a decrease of 9.1%, The share of the upper class in total income rose by about 8.1%.

Report of the National Insurance Institute's poverty and social disparities in 2018 (Photo: screenshot)

A sharp decline was recorded especially in employment rates among ultra-Orthodox and households, including the head of the retirement age. In addition, in 2017 unemployment reached a low of 3.5% among those aged 25-64 and 4% of the total workforce. It should be noted that despite concerns that are usually accompanied by increases in the minimum wage, the fall in unemployment over the past two years has coincided with a significant increase in the minimum wage.

"Welcome to the improvement trends"

Despite the hard data from the report, Prime Minister Netanyahu, who also holds the welfare case, and Social Security Director-General Spigler expressed satisfaction. "I would like to commend the achievements and the improvement trend reflected in the report, and I must continue to work to correct the weaknesses," Netanyahu said. In the income of all segments of the population, and especially the dramatic increase of 6.9% in the introduction of the weakest layers, which resulted in a decrease in the proportion of poor families and in the proportion of poor working families. The government has promoted important reforms for the elderly that have not yet been fully implemented in 2018, including a significant increase in disability benefits and nursing care that most of the beneficiaries are seniors. "

He added that "The government is committed to continuing its efforts to reduce poverty in the area, with a significant emphasis on veteran citizens."

"A dramatic change in policy" (Photo: Sharon Drub)

Elderly man digging in garbage can (Photo: Rotem Drove)

The Director General of the Child Peace Council, Adv. Ward Windman, said in the report that the rise in child poverty is a sign of the failure of social economic policy and a silent testimony to the transparency of entire groups of children in the eyes of policymakers. "This is the result of the last year's governmental failure that deepens the gaps and shortcomings anyway," she said.

"There must be a dramatic change in the socio-economic policy that the State of Israel has taken in recent years, which defeats almost one in three children in health, education, welfare, and their dignity as human beings," Windman added. "This is a shortage of the present, which will also have far-reaching social consequences for Israeli society in the future. The governmental failure of last year deepens the gaps and shortcomings anyway. This data should greatly plague the Israeli government and exclude sleep from all of us. As well as the fact that in the Comparison Index to developed countries Israel Can't get out of the bottom of the list. "

MK Ilan Gilon (Democratic Camp) also criticized the government. "Quite exemplary, without the official press conference and what seems like a postponement of the publication date as far as possible, today came out the report that best summarizes the decade of Netanyahu, who chose to fight the poor instead Fighting poverty, "he said." Really single in his generation. Another league. Another league in increasing poverty among veteran citizens and children. Another league in positioning Israel as one of the countries with high poverty rates in the OECD. Another league in dismantling the state from its responsibility to its citizens. "