Today the new rules about the Kitzvat Yeladim - the child allotments - go into effect.
The new policy will directly hurt a lot of people. While I surely have benefitted from receiving child allotments, and don't complain when the government wants to give me free money, I never really understood why it had to be given (or why some people acted as if it has to be). but that is beside the point.
I find it ironic that when some people were defending the child allotments, in previous years and when rationalizing to the public that it has nothing to do with being haredi, the claim was always that it is not a Haredi benefit, or it is not an Arab benefit, even though they tend to benefit from it the most, but is a benefit available to anybody and is given to everybody who has kids, yet when the allotments are cut suddenly the attacks go out that it is anti-haredi...
All those years when it was given freely and the money was flowing, it had nothing to do with haredim. Now that it is being stopped it is being cut for anti-haredi motives..
It either is or it isnt...
On another note, I do think that if the cut had to happen, and it seems like it did, they should have at least waited until after the holidays rather than cutting it right before...
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can you tell me - are tax "nekudot" supposed to go up for those working, to supplement these cuts?
ReplyDeletenot that I am aware of
DeleteI understood that the rationale for child allowances is that it replaces the income tax deductions for dependents (as found in the US, etc.) that working men do not have (why women do have these "points" and men don't is another story). Obviously, the system was developed with the understanding that 85% of men with families would be working, and it used to be that way in the past for chareidim as well.
ReplyDeleteHistorically there was much more to it than that. In the early years of the state the strong Zionist idea was that there needed to be more Jews in Israel, and one of the ways to do that was to give money for each Jewish child. Large families were honored in other ways too. I remember when the prime minister (possibly Ben-Gurion) personally honored a woman who had just given birth to her twentieth child.
ReplyDeleteJewish children used to be seen in Israel as good for the Jewish people and therefore good for the Jewish state. Now they're evidently seen in a very different light.
Jewish children used to be seen in Israel as good for the Jewish people and therefore good for the Jewish state. Now they're evidently seen in a very different light.
DeleteNo, they are seen in the same light. Jewish children that contribute to the Jewish state (army, meaningful education, work, etc) are seen as a good thing. Jewish children that do not contribute in a meaningful manner are seen as less good.
For Yair Lapid, it is a definitely an anti-Haredi move. While he did not specify who, he is boasting about how it was part of his campaign platform and how people should now go out and get a job - he'll help.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/YairLapid/posts/585842541474101
I should also add that this is one of those - stick it to them moves, even it it hurts me. Many, many more 'secular' families are hurt by this move than Haredim. 'Poor' people, as well as 'regular' people with 2-4 kids. Good men them Lapid-Bennet.
DeleteFor people with small families, the loss is hardly noticeable.
ReplyDelete