"The electricity would go out."
The Electric Company (Photo: Reuven Castro)
From the data of the electric company that reached Walla today (Monday) it appears that there are 53,421 households in Israel who do not pay their electricity bills according to consumption at the end of the month, but according to a prepayment meter (PAM). Therefore, when the charged amount runs out - the electricity flow in households These are disconnected. According to the law, the company may install a meter for debtors, where the consumer charges money in advance, and automatically deduct 20% of the charged amount in favor of the payment. Vala has learned that despite the end of the debt payment, the electric company continues to reduce the charging amount in its favor.
"Latat" organization Supports people who experience energy poverty, and cannot use electricity according to their needs. Many of the supported have an ATM installed in their home, of which 16.6% testify that there were times in the past year that they did not have enough money to charge it, and therefore the electricity was cut off in their home.
The data of these parent households are not included in the number of power outages that the company reports on.
In a survey conducted by "Latat", 24.4% of respondents answered that they had been disconnected from electricity in the past, because they were unable to pay bills, 48.8% answered that such an incident had not happened to them, and 26.85 said that they had not been disconnected from electricity, but had received warning letters.
The data also shows that the number of households where a meter is installed has more than doubled in the last four years, when in 2018 there were about 20 thousand households where the meter was installed.
An elderly woman looks for food in the garbage (Photo: Flash 90, Nati Shohat)
Marcel Shukron, 78, a Holocaust survivor from Be'er Sheva, told Walla that she experienced many power cuts.
"I'm constantly accumulating debt, they installed the meter, and if I don't charge it I have no electricity. Today my son has 200 shekels, after two days I had no electricity," she said.
"When I don't have electricity, I light candles so that I can see. I have no refrigerator and no heating, even in the cold. After I charge, I know to be careful to use very little electricity so that I don't run out."
According to Marcel, she has already finished the debt, but the electricity company refused to remove the meter.
"My debt started when my husband and my son died together and they took care of the bills, a debt of NIS 13,000 was created. I know there are many like me and we need to be helped, the easiest way is to turn off the electricity, but I am a sick and old woman."
On the other hand, 54-year-old Yosef Bar Shesht from Kiryat Ata, claims that over time she learned to get along with the MTA and he even helps her. "My husband got sick and I don't work, that's how I accumulated debt.
At the beginning when they installed the clock for us, I didn't know how to manage - suddenly the electricity would go out, I would get stressed and panic, we would go to the neighbors because there was no heating and light, and we would ask for loans from friends so that we could recharge.
Today I already know how to manage with him, look at how much I have left that way I am not left without anything.
Today I prefer to stay with this watch, so as not to go into debt again."
Among aid supporters, the average expenditure on electricity at home is NIS 621, which is 11.4% of the average monthly income per family (NIS 5,430).
More than half of the aid supporters were disconnected from electricity in the last year or received warning letters before disconnection, because they failed to pay the bill on time.
Disconnecting a household from electricity is a measurable and rigid variable, since regular electricity supply is a basic condition for the proper functioning of the house and its residents, disconnection from electricity alone may indicate that the household is in a state of energy poverty.
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Eran Weintraub, CEO of an organization to give a message that "the meaning of energy poverty is the insecurity of people living in poverty, regarding their ability to meet the energy needs of the household.
This is reflected either in the disconnection of the electricity or the inability to operate a heating device, out of fear that the family will not have enough money to pay the electricity bill.
This, in light of the additional essential needs necessary for existence that are considered flexible expenses, such as food, medicine or education."
"The thought that in Israel 2022 there will be families with children, the elderly or Holocaust survivors, who cover themselves in the winter with three blankets instead of turning on the stove or who have no electricity at home because they couldn't pay the bill, is intolerable, and provides another and sad angle on the meaning of living in poverty." Weintraub continued.
"The cost of living in Israel, the increase in interest rates and the expected increase in electricity prices, may worsen the situation of those who are already fighting a daily battle for survival and we hope that the government will change the order of national priorities, establish a body to fight poverty and bring about a turnaround and reduce poverty and social disparities, which affect a quarter of Israelis."
There was no response from the electricity company
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