The Finance Committee this afternoon completed work on a bill for financial aid for yeshiva students which will be attached to a bill equalizing the terms of the aid for both yeshiva students and graduate students.
Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) said that “the purpose of the consolidated legislation is to help the weakest segment in Israel, families that find it difficult to provide for their children’s most basic needs.”
According to the bill, to be eligible for the aid, a student must have 3 or more children, the family cannot own a car or already be receiving more than 1,200 NIS per month in government aid, and the spouse cannot be earning more than 1,200 NIS per month in income. Whatever child allowance the family is receiving will not be counted towards this total.
Another condition would be that the yeshiva student must be learning in kollel full time and for not less than 45 hours per week.
One of the committee’s concerns in formulating the law is that it meet the Supreme Court’s standards of non-discrimination. The representative of the Justice Ministry on the committee, Shai Somech, said that the “the law stands the test of constitutionality.”
Committee chairman Gafni summed up the issue and said, “The object of the consolidated law is to equalize the allowance for both graduate students and students of Torah. This law’s purpose is to provide the support needed to ensure a dignified life for all citizens who are learning.”