Treasury battles Welfare Ministry

Poverty plan would sharply increase funding to groups that distribute food.

By RUTH EGLASH
A Welfare and Social Services Ministry plan to tackle growing poverty is likely to face resistance from the Treasury when it comes up for discussion Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Already approved by the Ministerial Committee for Social Welfare in July, the plan is the brainchild of Welfare and Social Services Ministry Director-General Nachum Itzkovitz, who published a 36-page report on the country's poverty problem last March. It calls on the government to ensure basic "nutritional security," or sufficient access to basic food products, for everyone and recommends sharply increasing state funding to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that distribute food to the needy. The plan also suggests the establishment of a public poverty council that will enable those who distribute food to advise the government on the issue. "The State of Israel must protect its unique character as a welfare state, especially in light of the growing world economic crisis," Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog insisted over the weekend. Herzog said he planned to vigorously confront the resistance to the plan expressed recently by Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On and Treasury representatives. In response, a Finance Ministry spokesman said that next year's budget for the Welfare and Social Services Ministry had already been mutually agreed upon in August and it was sufficient enough to cover such projects, including the hiring of additional manpower. "Allocating resources is up to the ministry, which sets its own priorities," said the spokesman. "If the Welfare and Social Services Ministry is interested in pursuing this plan, it has the means to do so." According to Itzkovitz's report, close to 500,000 people eat in soup kitchens or rely on others to feed them on a daily basis and close to one-third of the population cannot afford to buy essential food items. It also notes that more than 500 charities are active nationwide in feeding people. In recent months, many of these charities have been left struggling with the low rate of the dollar, falling donations from abroad and sharp increases in food prices. In addition to the alarming statistics presented by the report, Itzkovitz concluded that the government needed to become more involved in supporting the nonprofit sector in providing food aid, as well as in finding additional avenues to help individuals become self-sufficient. Itzkovitz's suggestions are: to streamline the work of the nonprofit sector; to increase the government's financial contribution to NGOs from NIS3 million to between NIS30m.-NIS50m; to establish a public committee on poverty; and to reopen discussions on increasing certain welfare benefits cut in recent years. His report also recommends ensuring that poverty data are regularly collected. The plan was warmly welcomed by NGOs, which for years have been calling on the government to increase its involvement. According to the US definition, "nutritional insecurity" is considered "a lack of continuous access to sufficient quantities of appropriate food that can ensure a healthy, active life and normal development." The most recent study on food insecurity here, the data of which was included in Itzkovitz's report, was conducted in 2003 by the Brookdale Institute and found that 22 percent of the population had a problem feeding themselves and their families. These figures are significantly higher than those of the US and Canada, the study found.