According to a Yediot Achronot report, no less than 42,000 Israeli families are at least three months late making mortgage payments, signaling trouble for the banking industry. An additional 11,000 families are over 18 months late in making payment, signaling they have defaulted on their mortgage.

The report states that 5% of Israeli homeowners are late in making mortgage payments as the economic situation worsens for a growing number of Israeli households. The report states this number is high; higher than Spain and Belgium which report 4%, and France, which reports 1.7%, Britain 0.9% and Holland 0.8%.

According to a recently released OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) report, one in every five Israeli adults and one in every three Israeli children live below the poverty line. This places the national poverty rate at 21% in comparison with 13.8% back in 1995.

In last year’s report, Israel ranked second behind Mexico, but today, Israel leads OECD nations with the highest poverty level.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría states “These worrying findings underline the need to protect the most vulnerable in society, especially as governments pursue the necessary task of bringing public spending under control.”

As the cabinet approved the state budget, Bituach Leumi (National Insurance Institute) has warned that at least an additional 40,000 families will be under the poverty level as a result of the government’s austerity budget.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)