Welfare Minister Yitzchak Herzog has proposed creating a trust fund for every child in Israel instead of providing parents with monthly child allowance payments. The fund would allow children from poor families to break the cycle of poverty, he said.

According to the proposal, the government would create a savings account for every Israeli child born, with poor children receiving a bonus. Child allowance payments would be made to the account, which the child would be allowed at a time that has yet to be determined.

Politicians in Shas, which has pushed for higher child allowances, expressed concern that the proposed program would hurt, not help, children from poor families. Poor families often need the monthly child allowance payments to provide children with basics such as food, they said.