A Bank of Israel study has found that the sharp cuts in National Insurance allocations, particularly in income support and child allowance, in recent years hurt the needy and significantly reduced the generosity of Israel's welfare system, compared with the international levels.
Dr. Daniel Gottlieb and Nitza Kaliner-Kasir conducted the study. They found that Israel ranked last of a table of countries for the eligibility period for unemployment payments, with less than 200 days. Only three countries had comparable eligibility periods: Italy, the UK and the Netherlands.
In most Western countries, the eligibility period for unemployment benefits is 300-1,000 days. Denmark and Norway had the longest period, with 1,500 days and 1,100 days, respectively.
In contrast, the qualifying period for unemployment benefits in Israel was one of the strictest, amounting to over 50 weeks, the same as in Australia, Germany, Denmark and Spain.
The situation of the unemployed is worse in only two countries. In Belgium, the qualifying period for unemployment benefits is 70 weeks and in Portugal it is almost 80 weeks. The easiest countries are Canada, France, and Sweden, where the qualifying period is only 10-20 weeks.
The study warns that the average child allowance will be slashed, due to budget cuts, and will amount to only 2.3% of GDP by 2009, compared with 3.1% in 2003 and 4.9% in 2001, before the cuts in National Insurance payments.
Child allowances on the basis of the number of children in a family is also expected to be slashed to 2.5% of GDP by 2009, compared with 5.1% in 2003 and 6.6% in 2001, even though Israel has a proportionally greater number of children compared with other countries.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on July 4, 2004