The number of income support plaintiffs has doubled since the outbreak of the corona crisis

The Employment Service on Monday released data on doubling the number of income support plaintiffs - citizens whose economic situation is particularly difficult - according to which their number has doubled since the outbreak of the corona crisis and the number of claims now stands, towards the end of 2020, at 115,336. The last time the number of income support claimants was so high was in 2013 when 120,000 people received an actual income guarantee. On the eve of the crisis, March 2020, the number of plaintiffs was only 59,000.
18,387 income support claimants and 44,086 unemployment claimants are those who have previously claimed income support, rehabilitated and integrated into the labor market, and since the outbreak of the crisis have been ejected from it again. This figure is worrying in itself, as it means that those who have already been rescued from poverty, return to it due to the severe corona crisis.
Income security is part of the safety net that the State of Israel provides to its citizens. The purpose of the benefit is to ensure a minimum subsistence allowance for families whose income does not allow them to do so. In fact, income security is a testament to the depth of economic hardship a family has encountered, as well as to the state of poverty in the country.
For the first time since the outbreak of the crisis, the Employment Service today published data on claimants for income support benefits. The data show that the number of claimants for income support has almost doubled since the beginning of the Corona crisis - from 59,043 plaintiffs on the eve of the crisis (until March 15) to 115,336 as of today. This is an increase of 95%, plus 56,243 new income support claimants.
Since the outbreak of the crisis, many young Israelis who do not have families have become unemployed on the one hand, and on the other hand have not been able to accumulate the qualifying period that entitles them to unemployment benefits - currently 6 months of work - a reality that left them without an economic safety net.
Therefore, in the absence of a benefit mechanism tailored to this population, the National Insurance Institute issued a call for the exercise of rights in the income support pension even for young people who have not accumulated the qualifying period that qualifies for unemployment benefits. Due to this decision, since the outbreak of the corona crisis, the proportion of young people, aged 18-35, among the population of income support claimants has increased significantly and now stands at 29%.
The proportion of plaintiffs under the age of 20 increased during this period by 1054%, from 201 pre-crisis plaintiffs to 2,319 today. This is while the number of plaintiffs aged 21-30 has risen by 383% since the crisis, from 4,534 to 21,905.
In general, since the outbreak of the crisis, there has been a trend of rejuvenating the composition of income support claimants, and if before that the number of plaintiffs under the age of 40 was 10,746, now it stands at 43,246, which is 37% of all plaintiffs. As a result of the increase among young plaintiffs, the proportion of plaintiffs over the age of 50 dropped significantly, from 65% before the crisis to 48% today.
A very worrying phenomenon, recorded since the outbreak of the crisis, is the "revolving door" phenomenon, according to which income support claimants who were rehabilitated before the crisis, as part of the Employment Service's "employment circles" program and integrated into the labor market, have found themselves out of work since it began. 44,086 (of whom 12,455 Arabs and 3,052 ultra-Orthodox) of the unemployment benefit plaintiffs and 18,287 (of whom 6,019 Arabs and 1,292 ultra-Orthodox) of income support claimants who were added from the outbreak of the crisis are those who received income support in the last decade, .
Since the outbreak of the crisis, the number of married couples claiming income support has risen by 167%, from 14,474 before the crisis to 24,227 today. In the sectoral distribution of the plaintiffs' spouses, there was a change in the eight months of the crisis - before March, 80% of the spouses who claimed income support (11,616) were Arabs, now their rate has dropped to 72% (17,378). Among the ultra-Orthodox spouses, there was a 261% increase in the number of spouses claiming income support, from 719 before the crisis to 1,869 now. Also, before the crisis, the ultra-Orthodox constituted 5% of all spouses claiming income support and today their rate is 8%.
In general, there have been no significant changes in the gender and sectoral distribution of all income support benefit claimants since the outbreak of the crisis. If before the crisis, 42% of all plaintiffs were Arabs, then today their rate is 41%. Gender, similar to the period before the corona crisis, even today the distribution of income support claimants is 53% women compared to 47% men.
Dr. Ophir Pinto, VP of Research and Policy at the Employment Service: In recent years, the Employment Service has been leading the "Employment Circles" program, which works to integrate income support claimants into the labor market. In Israel, ie tens of thousands of unemployed who have been integrated into the labor force. As the crisis in the labor market deepens, more and more Israelis are forced to claim an income guarantee benefit. "We are already working to integrate income support claimants into the" employment circles "program and other related programs, in order to improve their economic situation and reduce dependence on benefits as much as possible."