Four organizations – ACRI, Community Advocacy, Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow and Shomrey Mishpat Rabbis for Human Rights – turned to newly appointed Finance Minister Yuval Shteinitz, urging him not to expand the Lights to Employment Plan (known as Wisconsin Plan) to all regions of the country, as has been announced in the framework of the government’s financial emergency plan.
ACRI attorneys Oshrat Maimon and Debbie Gild-Hayo stated that the Wisconsin Plan had been widely criticized for its severe negative impacts on job seekers. They added that past experience in other countries, where Wisconsin was implemented, shows that the plan failed to contribute significantly to a rise in employment levels and to the reduction of poverty. In some cases, the Wisconsin Plan had lead to a deterioration in the living conditions of recipients of income support benefits.
“The Wisconsin Plan”, said Attorney Maimon, “was at first a pilot plan implemented in a number of designated localities. It received harsh criticism due to the harm suffered by job seekers, and the violation of their right to live in dignity. Even if positive amendments to the plan have been made, most of these changes have not yet been put to test. It is inconceivable that at this point in time, in such a difficult financial climate, hundreds of thousands of Israeli job seekers will be turned into guinea pigs of this problematic plan”.
