While households across all Israeli population groups are suffering financially, the new State of the Nation report issued by the Taub Center for Social Policy has found that haredim get 60% more in state benefits than any other group.
Haredim Get 60% More State Benefits Than Other Groups But Are Still Poor
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
While households across all Israeli population groups are suffering financially, the new State of the Nation report issued by the Taub Center for Social Policy has found that haredim get 60% more in state benefits than any other group, the Jerusalem Post reported.
It was out of control housing costs that put most Israeli households in deficit, the report found.
Non-Orthodox Israeli Jewish households had an average deficit of NIS 864 ($221) each month while Israeli Arabs ran an average deficit of NIS 1,919 ($420) monthly.
But haredi households ran average deficits of NIS 3,209 ($820) monthly, a third of their reported income.
Yet haredim ran those monthly defects despite receiving 60% more in monthly welfare and related state benefits than all other groups, NIS 3,256 ($832) per month, while all other groups got NIS 2,000 ($511).
Haredi men most often choose not to work and instead study full time in yeshivas well into middle age, while they and their families rely on state welfare benefits, government child allowances, small yeshiva stipends and charity to survive. This means the haredi community is largely poor by choice and consumes a disproportionate amount of government welfare and related benefits almost completely paid for by non-haredi taxpayers. And because that pool of government benefits is limited, the haredi community takes some of those benefits away from non-haredi Israelis who are poor due to illness, bad luck or old age.
The report also found that corruption and bureaucracy seriously impact housing construction and that it take on average 13 years to get a housing development built with only 2 years of that time period involving actual construction.
In 2003, 43% of young Israelis did not own homes. By 2012 that percentage had risen to 54%.