The strictly Orthodox community is facing a rise in child poverty as a result of benefit cuts and lack of secular education for boys in its schools, according to a new report.
With the economic downturn and government spending cuts, it says: “The alarm bells should be ringing loudly”.
The report, by Jonathan Boyd, executive director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), is the most comprehensive survey of child deprivation undertaken in modern British Jewry.
The Charedi community is particularly at risk of “considerable damage”.
“The potentially toxic mix of a paucity of professional skills, more mouths to feed, a reduction in government support and a likely diminution of charitable donations all point towards the probability of a noteworthy increase in child poverty and deprivation cases in the coming years,” it says.
The poverty level is difficult to calculate because of a lack of data on incomes. But information from the 2001 census and other reports give some indication of its extent. Around eight per cent of UK Jewish children – 3,800 – live in overcrowding, a third of them in the London borough of Hackney, home to the largest Charedi community.
Nearly nine per cent of children, over 4,300, live in households with no adult in work. Another 4,000 live in low-earning households. Around one in six is eligible for free school meals in the strictly Orthodox Pardes House Primary school in Barnet and in the pluralist Clore Tikvah Primary in Redbridge, Essex. Almost one in ten are on free school meals at JFS.
It also notes that the cost of maintaining a religious lifestyle can impose an additional burden. Some people are plunged into debt by spending more than they can afford on simchahs to keep up appearances.
(Source: Jewish Chronicle)
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10 Responses
I can’t believe it!
Is there a place where we can donate online??
Rest assured..The Charedi world is far far from “considerable damage”.A typical inaccurate article from the anti Religous JC.Surprised you publish it with out refering to Charedi spoksmen eg Rabbi Abraham Pinter ..
Once cannot eat appearances, can one? Therefore, don’t plunge into debt to maintain them. Problem solved.
Its a sad day for society when people can only survive on government hand out. The government hand out was only supposed to help people till they got back on their feet. Now days in most countries especially the USA its unfortunate that many people have taken the governments hand outs with “open hands”. From Government subsidized housing, to food stamps, to medicade , from school vouchers, to headstart programs.
People think “if the government is giving it out, why not me?”
The answer is simple, the government gets the funding for all these programs from taxes. The more people on the programs , the higher the taxes are.
In another look, there is also another issue. As time goes on, people who are on these programs become reliant on these programs to survive. Where once apon a time, if one didn’t have money they would go out and find a better job, today many just rely on the government hand out.
When the government realizes, that its either cut these programs, or they may not get the health care benefits that they (the government employees) want, they cut all government assistance programs, in turn all those who shouldn’t have been relying on them in the first place are now in danger of not feeding their families, and the saga continues.
Having my childhood years in the Stamford Hill community, I was from the select few who embraced secular education knowing full well that one cannot sustain a healthy future relying on Governments handouts. How unfortunate are those mechanchim on the Hill that shunned secular education, here are the results. It is interesting to note that the Golders Green and Hendon communities will not be suffering this way. Vehameivin Yovin.
London’s non-frum weekly ‘Jewish Chronicle’ is ‘anti Charedi’ based, their news & views of the Charedi community should not apear at Yeshiva World News.
Asay shabascha chol v’al titztaraich labrios – they should not be depending on the government. It is the parents not the government that is responsible for the situation. There are many frum people with educations and jobs.
…רוח והצלה יעמוד ליהודים ממקום אחר
#6, Denial is not only a river in Egypt. Stop blaming the Non Chareidi . Every now and then they are right. This is a huge problem and for you to claim otherwise is ignorance on your part
Everyone knows the JC is an anti-semitic rag, published by self-hating Jews.