http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=35147 0
Israeli Unemployment benefits cut 23 percent in Jan-Sept 2003
By Eynav Ben Yehuda
Unemployment benefit payments plunged 23 percent in the first nine months of 2003, compared with the parallel period last year, according to National Insurance Institute figures released Sunday.
Benefits for the unemployed in January to September totaled just NIS 1.88 billion, the NII disclosed, compared with NIS 2.43 billion in the same months of 2002.
Despite the steepness of the nine-month drop, the trend has stabilized in the last few months. Payments through the NII in September came to NIS 200 million, compared with NIS 203 million in August and NIS 200 million in July.
Only 28 percent of Israel's 280,000 unemployed were entitled to benefits in the first half of 2003, the NII figures show. In 2002 the proportion of entitled unemployed was 37 percent, down from 45 percent in 2001 and 2000.
The reason for the drop is tightened criteria for entitlement. The new regulations came into force in the second half of 2002, lowering the figure for that year.
Under the reform, unemployment benefits were reduced by 4 percent across the board. The age for entitlement was raised and the number of days discharged soldiers could receive benefits was slashed from 138 days to 70.
Claimants aged under 25 years are now only entitled to 50 days' support instead of 100, and unemployed childless singles aged 25 to 35 years are entitled to 100 days instead of 138.
A person may receive benefits just twice during each five-year period, and only if the person had worked for a year out of the preceding 18 months before the request for benefits. Beforehand, the criterion had been six month's work in the year before the request.