OECD Reviews of Labour Market and Social Policies: Israel
Tackling the root causes of such deep inequality would greatly enhance the dynamism of the Israeli economy. Greater investment to help workers improve their skills is urgently needed. Welfare-to-work programmes need to be restructured and extended, including by reducing child benefits paid to families who are able to work but do not and by sharply increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit to tackle in-work poverty more effectively. And access to means-tested income supports for the neediest should be improved. Israel has failed to enforce many aspects of its labour legislation, contributing to poor employment conditions for many resident, cross-border and foreign low-income workers. Rules to overcome discrimination against all workers need to be enforced, and the illegal hiring and employment of temporary foreign workers need to be stamped out.
Progress has been made in many of these areas. New legislation and initiatives have been introduced. The challenge is how to make reform work in practice. The consequences of not doing so would be devastating.
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Preparing for Population Ageing and Fighting Poverty among the Elderly
This chapter looks at Israel’s pension, disability and long-term care policies in the light of demographic trends and the relatively high poverty rates amongst elderly people in Israel. The basic pension system provides a low level of support to nearly everyone, and additional public pension payments are either means-tested or depend on length of service. At their maximum public pension benefits exceed the poverty income threshold. However, strict means-testing limits access to income supplements, so that only a quarter of the elderly in Israel receive the maximum payment, while another quarter has incomes below the poverty line.
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