The Yitzhaki inter-ministerial committee, chaired by chief statistician Shlomo Yitzhaki, blames the increase in the number of poor every year on the poor people themselves. Divorce rates are steadily rising from one year to the next, and poor economic decision on the allocation of resources by households, and fluctuating income levels and wealth of individuals and families because of retirement or loss of job, in part because of the lack of pension arrangements.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appointed the committee, which criticizes increasing the quest for luxuries. "Some people forego food to buy liquor, others forego food to gamble, and still others forego food to travel abroad. Mothers and fathers forego what their children want because they want to use the money for other purposes that they think are more essential."
The committee recommends comprehensive reform in the government's handling of poverty by developing new, better and more professional measures of poverty. The innovation in the committee's recommendations is the attempt to seperate the truly poor from the "imposters" who succeed in entering the list and benefiting from National Insurance allowances because of the lax criteria.
Yitzhaki also writes in the report that there is no risk of mass hunger in Israel and that the number of poor is defined as a technical measure that does not represent the number of hungry people in the country.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 19, 2008
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