Minister of Finance Avigdor Liberman has announced the cancellation of government subsidies for day care centers (for babies and toddlers and pre-kindergarten infants) for families in which both parents do not work. The new policy mainly targets the haredi (ultra-orthodox population) where the father often studies in yeshiva, and is aimed to encourage them to join the job market.
Starting after the summer, in order to quality for subsidized day care (WIZO, Na'amah and the like), each parent will be required to work a minimum of 24 hours per week. Students learning a skill that leads to a job will be exempted from the new rules and allowed to receive a subsidy. The average monthly government subsidy at present is worth about NIS 1,000 per child.
A Ministry of Finance source said, "We are talking about the cancellation of a negative incentive in terms of not going to work. The state currently pays subsidies of NIS 1.2 billion per year, with those who will now not be entitled receiving about one third of the sum - NIS 400 million, which the state will save. There are about 23,000 children who receive the subsidy where the father learns including about 21,000 in yeshiva. Only in about 1,500-2,000 cases are the fathers learning subjects that are not Torah related but aimed at a job. Now they will no longer be entitled to a subsidy and we hope that will lead the fathers to join the job market."
Liberman himself said, 'The decision I am taking today is a very important step in changing the state's order of priorities and putting at the top those who work and pay taxes. The current mechanism harms working parents and prefers those who are not working and so the change is required. I will continue to lead processes that will cancel negative incentives to integrate into the job market."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 7, 2021
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