Liberman says he’s ending daycare subsidies for children of full-time yeshiva students

7 July 2021, 2:29 pm

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Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman attends the Eli Horowitz Conference for Economy and Society, organized by Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem on June 29, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman has announced he plans to change daycare subsidies for kids up to age three, effectively ending them for some 20,000 children of Torah students.

Liberman says the subsidies will be granted only if the child’s father works at least 24 hours a week.

Haredi party Shas leader Aryeh Deri calls the step “destructive and wicked,” and action designed “to hurt families with many children simply because they are Haredi.”

Liberman says the step is intended to “change priorities and give precedence to those who work and pay taxes. The current system hurts working parents while prioritizing those who do not.”