Social Welfare Minister Yitzhak Herzog presented the NII’s poverty report together with the director general of the institute, Yigal Ben-Shalom.
The report showed a slight decrease in overall poverty – the percentage of families living under the poverty line dropped from 20.6% in 2005 to 20% and the percentage of individuals living under the poverty line decreased from 24.7% to 24.5%. However, the percentage of children who suffered from poverty rose from 35.2% to 35.8%.
According to the report, an estimated 404,000 families – 1.65 million people and 796,000 children – lived under the poverty line.
There was a significant drop in poverty figures among the elderly – from 24.4% in 2005 to 21.5%. The fall was the result of an increase in pensions.
