Poverty levels in Israel fell slightly last year, with 19.8 percent of families being classified as impoverished in 2010 compared with 20.5% in 2009, according to a report by the National Insurance Institute published on Thursday. Although this is a slight drop for Israel, the numbers are still high compared to other countries in the OECD. At the end of 2010, there were 1,773,400 Israeli citizens living below the poverty line 837,300 of whom were children. This translates to one out of every three children in Israel living in poverty. The overall percentage of Israeli citizens living under the poverty line dropped from 25 percent to 24.4% and the percentage of children dropped from 36.3% to 35.3%. The poverty rate among the elderly also improved slightly, dropping from 20.1% in 2009 to 19.6% in 2010. "The central ways to deal with reducing the gaps and lowering the cost of living are to finance children's education, to provide equal opportunities in overall educational funding and personal investment in students," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz added, "We are seeing the beginning of a trend to reduce poverty." "The differences in the magnitude of poverty from year to year have not succeeded in changing the overall sad situation in recent years," said Welfare and Social Services Minister Moshe Kahlon. National Insurance Institute Director-General Esther Dominici added, "The government must act decisively to reduce poverty and social gaps." "This report on poverty shows that due to the systematic exploitation of the work force and, especially, employment through labor contractors not only does this not save people from poverty, it actually causes it," Labor party leader MK Shelly Yachimovich said. National Social Workers' Union head Itsik Pree was not optimistic about the report. "This minimal reduction in poverty inspires little joy. When every fourth person in a country, every third child and about half of working families are not able to make a respectable living and suffer from poverty, it is a mark of shame for the government."
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