Hamas War

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Netanyahu, Lapid Punish Families With Children and Bennett is Silent

Only the wealthy won't feel Binyamin Netanyahu and Yair Lapid's latest budget cut, which reduces "child allowances" to a pitiful joke
Where just a few years ago families received as much as NIS 400 per child, the payments for children will fall to NIS 140 (less than $40) per child per month... Arutz 7

Contrary to Lapid's rantings, it's not the lazy unemployed sector that will feel it the most.  Those families with almost no income get various welfare subsidies; it's the working poor, who even with the previous child allowances barely finished the month. 

I have no idea how Lapid has come up with his so-called facts:
“We will help needy families and set aside hundreds of millions [of shekels] to make sure no children go hungry, but [the cuts] are a historic move from a culture of allotments to a culture of work.”
Beginning on August 20, parents will receive only 140 shekels per month for each child born after June 1, 2003.
According to Lapid, National Insurance Institute (NII) child allotments perpetuated poverty instead of stopping it.
“There is only one thing that allows families to get out of the cycle of poverty – work. The poverty rate in families with two working parents is under 5 percent.” Indy News of Israel
Apparently, Yair Lapid is just as anti-religious and anti-chareidi as his father was.  He just packages himself differently. 
For Haredi families, this severe cut in income comes coupled with a severe curtailing of funding for yeshivas and kolelim—by 30 percent this coming year, and by 60 percent the following year. Jewish Press

Lapid's timing is extra cruel considering the season.  Summer is extremely, unbearably expensive for families with children, no matter what their income.  Children on vacation from school need to be minded, cared for which is expensive.  Summer camp, vacations, babysitters, bathing suits, crafts etc. are difficult for many parents to pay for.  You see many parents taking their children to work, because there's no alternative especially when they are working at low wages.  Sometimes it costs more to go to work than to stay home.  By reducing child allowances it can become completely financially impossible for both parents to work.

Even before these new child allowance cuts, parents were finding it difficult to pay for school supplies, books and the expenses for the upcoming Jewish Holidays.

Israel doesn't have much of a parliamentary opposition, but I hope this latest government move galvanizes them to action.
“It injures where it’s supposed to heal. Once again, [Finance Minister Yair] Lapid is taking advantage of and encouraging a mistaken and inciting idea that haredim and Arabs are the only ones who are harmed by budget cuts. First of all, a child is a child is a child.”
According to Yacimovich, the average family will lose NIS 2,000 per year because of the allotment cuts.
The Labor issue took with a statistic Lapid cited – that only five percent of families where both parents work are poor – and said that 65 percent of poor families are working families.
She added that there are 870,000 poor children in Israel, more than any other Western country.
“This is an economic and national mistake, evil for its own sake, and a total detachment from people’s regular lives,” Yacimovich wrote.  Jerusalem Post


But my big question concerns to silence from Lapid's buddy, Naftali Bennett. A large portion of Bennett's NRP-aka Bayit Yehudi voters will be losing thousands of shekels a year in this government decision.  Ignored by Lapid, Netanyahu and Bennett, who is also in the government coalition, is the fact that many, many families that will be losing thousands of shekels a year are from the dati Le'umi, national religious portion of the population.  They voted on the whole for NRP and Likud.  There's a good chance they won't be able to afford to make that mistake again.

16 comments:

Miriam said...

FANTASTIC BLOG! Bennett is the biggest disappointment across the board...his family won't feel the cuts either... SHAMEFUL!

Sharing.......

Jesterhead45 said...

Admit to not being that knowledgeable of Israeli politics, though am curious as to whether the reduction in child allowances is the Leftist Israeli establishment's way of curtailing the growing Jewish birth-rate, in light of the fact that their pro-arab demographic myths have been proven to be unfounded?

Shy Guy said...

I'll paste what I commented on INN:

He's right and he's wrong

Child allowances should be eliminated altogether. Instead, there should be fixed tax deductions/rebates for household dependents. And as far as cuts are concerned, at least 60% of national, regional and municipal government employees should be fired, so that Israel's lowered minimal tax rates will become the envy of the rest of the world and attract 10s of 10000s of new olim who will move their businesses and skills here and make this country thrive like you could never imagine!

Hadassa said...

Shalom!
I haven't done enough research to present a plan like Shy Guy did, but I agree that the entire economic system is in desperate need of an overhaul. The way married couples are taxed should be changed also. Lapid's statistics for the working poor seem way off to me too. Yechimovitch's quote of 65% has to be much closer to the truth.

jeff said...

tax deductions or rebates are irrelevant when your monthly income/paycheck is below the taxable amount, which is the case for many of the families hardest hit by these cuts.

fizziks said...

What ever happened to don't breed 'em if you can't feed 'em?

Shy Guy said...

Hadassa,

The times they are a changin'!

Jeff, that was my previous comment's point.

Batya said...

Jest and fizz, are you proposing that people kill/eliminate their kids (G-d forbid) who are no longer covered by previous payments? As Shy wrote, in Israel you don't have the same sort of tax deductions that you have in the states.

People do budget this money in to their lives and depend on it. They consider it like salary. It buys food and clothes. Right Hadassa?

Jeff, so shouldn't they get the equivalent of the American "foodstamps?"

Miriam, thanks

Anonymous said...

I went to get the kitzbat yeladim today - I couldnt believe it! Not only was it almost half the previous amount but they left out the standard august double portion. They would give double the amount for august to help parents with school costs.
When I think of how much taxes we pay.... it just steams me!! Maybe we get the entire knesset to take an actual paycut, and restore the kitzbat yeladim.

Batya said...

a, cruel, unjust. I can't believe they were able to activate it instantaneously. And Bennett and all the "you can trust them" NRP MK's just quietly accepting their salaries and perks.
Most ironic, illogical is that the Israeli economy is one of the best, the strongest in the western world. There is absolutely no reason to squeeze the poor. Let them cancel the payments to those earning the top 30%, and have the same people taxed more.

Anonymous said...

Hi Batya -

It seems to me Jesterhead is against curtailing the Jewish birthrate - he's just pointing out that it's possibly why the Left is cutting back on the money for those families who are doing the best job of bringing our numbers back.

fizziks, you better stop that talk, whether you're a Jew or not! We Jews have a lot to make up for (how many cullings have we been through already???), and I for one am glad to help support the growth of the Jewish nation with my tax shekels - or my tithes, whichever government system we happen to be under. I hope we will be under a Torah government soon!

CDG, Yerushalayim

Jesterhead45 said...

CDG, Yerushalayim

Yep, that was exactly the point I was trying to make as to the Leftist establishment's motivation behind the cuts and am against curtailing the Jewish birthrate.


Shy Guy said...

That's right, Batya. Scare the people who open the businesses and offer employment away from the country.

See how that's working in Europe and recently in the States.

Chazal say: Who is wise? One who sees the outcome of events.

Tried and failed but keep banging your head against the wall.

Devorah Chayah said...

"They voted on the whole for NRP and Likud. There's a good chance they won't be able to afford to make that mistake again."

Maybe that's the point, from Heaven's point of view.

Look, I make less money today than I did fifteen years ago. I've been on the same job for eight years. In that time, I've had three raises, all less than a sheqel. My rent has tripled and food has quadrupled in price. Something has got to give somewhere.

Devorah Chayah said...

A "must-read" article:

Former Welfare Minister: Never Harm the Children!

Shy Guy said...

Devash, Boozhi Herzog is the last person I would reference regarding harming children or not.

It was the labor party who brought us Arafat and Oslo and it always has been the labor party who wants to eat into your salary to prop up the government, kibutzim and Histadrut.

You picked a fat cat socialist as an authority on our children's welfare?!?! You can do better than that!