Cuts in benefits: National Insurance protests, Lapid satisfied

Starting tomorrow (Tuesday) child allowances will be reduced to half, and the National Insurance CEO expresses his displeasure: in an interview with Channel 2 said Prof. Shlomo Mor-Yosef: "I cannot say I'm happy with the government's decision, but we should not look back but forward and see how to deal with existing needs."

Mor-Yosef said that the Minister of Social Affairs has established a team to fight poverty: "I hope that within two years we'll be back to a reasonable state of child allowances. The fact is in most developed countries there are greater benefits. Although they do not make you rich, but they help."

Concerning pension allowances Mor-Yosef said that "the extension of life expectancy and working age will affect us all and have to deal with it. According to the National Insurance report, if correct measures are not taken - in 40 years we will have to cut old age pensions. We need to take small steps now to do drastic measures in decades, and the government should discuss the recommendations of the report ".
Shas chairman Aryeh Deri says that this is a sad day, "Yair Lapid Finance Minister will exercise his promise to voters tomorrow and will put tens of thousands of children into poverty, and thousands of families who were sitting at an empty table. This is a sad day for Israel; a government who behaves without compassion to its weak citizens has no right to exist. I call the Habayit Hayehudi, and each member of the coalition who considers himself my friend to immediately resign from the government, and not be a partner in crime. "

MK Eli Yishai said, "Tomorrow's cuts will cause a commission of inquiry in a few years for the poor children of Israel. Minister of Finance is looking for the money in the mouths of children instead of by the tycoons. Decisions of the Minister of Finance on the matter, is stemmed from non consideration affairs and certainly not economic. It is regrettable that he found it necessary to sacrifice the children of Israel on the altar of mandates.

Economic mistake

Opposition Leader Shelly Yachimovich also attacked the cuts in child allowances which will begin tomorrow.

"Particularly painful example of a difficult situation where the government is doing the exact opposite of that required," said Yachimovitch, "870 thousand poor children in Israel have, a negative peak in western terms, child allowances are lowest in the west - and instead of putting the child poverty reduction as a central objective - Government Netanyahu's well-fed, Lapid and Bennett does just the opposite and choose easy victims: children."

She added further that Lapid "utilizes a misconception and incitement that Haredim and Arabs are the only casualties attacked by the cut, but in practice 65% of poor families are working families and ordinary and average family who lose two thousand shekels a year because of this decree.
"This is a national economic error, malice, and totally disconnected from normal life of the people."

Yair Lapid however is happy. Status published on his Facebook page, he wrote: "This was one of our major election promises, and now she comes to fruition. We will help course for a needy family and we gave hundreds of millions security nutrient for children, and while we canceled entirely child allowances for families at top percentile, but this is an historic step beyond the culture of the culture of work benefits.

"For years and years it has been repeatedly proven that child allowances do not exclude the people from poverty, but only perpetuate poverty. There is only one thing that allows families out of poverty - and this is a job. Families where both parents work, poverty drops below 5%.

"That's what parental responsibility is, it is also the interpretation of social responsibility. When a person brings children into the world, he is responsible for them. Not the state should support them, not even other parents.

"We will do everything to help any parent who wants to work - from placement programs to financial incentives for those who work for low wages - but there is one principle that we do not intend to give into: the Israeli middle class should not pay for people who can work and do not work."

Following budget cut child allowances, family with three children so far who received a total of NIS 701 will receive only NIS 420. Family with four children received NIS 964 NIS will get only NIS 560.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!