Welfare during the War and After: The Functioning of the Welfare System during the October 7 War and Policy Proposals
Creators: name: Gal, John
name: Shavit, Ben-Porat
name: Ovadia, Yael
Publisher: name: The Taub Center for Social Policy Studies
Year: 2024

description: As we approach one year since the start of the October 7th war, the Taub Center is publishing a study examining the performance of the welfare system during the war. The study highlights a severe deficit in the provision of welfare services and proposes long-term policy alternatives and solutions for future emergency situations.

The study, conducted by Professor John Gal, Shavit Ben-Porat, and Yael Ovadia, reveals that the welfare system was unprepared to cope with the complex challenges created by the war and the extent of the needs of those affected. This unpreparedness was the result of years of underfunding and a significant shortage of social workers, as well as an unequal distribution of funding between local authorities. However, the study found that the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs and the local authority social services departments responded quickly to the war and made adjustments that allowed them to address some of the damages caused by the welfare deficit.

The study is based, among other things, on 21 interviews with key figures in the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, professionals in local authority social services departments, and members of civil society organizations. It is the first study to examine the welfare system's performance during the war and offers steps that can be taken to rectify the situation.

The welfare system entered the war already suffering from severe budgetary neglectEven before the war broke out, as the researchers emphasize, the welfare system was experiencing a severe "welfare deficit" – a significant gap between the needs of those requiring its services and its ability to meet those needs. This gap severely impaired the system's ability to address the variety of hardships of the war.



In a short time, tens of thousands of new clients were added to the welfare system, including those who personally experienced the attack, those whose relatives were murdered or taken hostage, and the many residents evacuated from their homes in the South and North – all in addition to the system's over one million regular service users.

Despite the impressive efforts of social workers and employees of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, the lack of funding and adequate skilled manpower meant that the responses provided to those affected during the first six months of the war were only partial. Often, professionals had to rely on volunteers, civil society organizations, and philanthropic organizations.

During this period, the government allocated NIS 9.5 billion for welfare and social security issues to address the war's damages and the growing needs of residents.


Social workers played a critical role but were overwhelmed by heavy workloads and burnout due to manpower shortagesBefore the war, local social service departments had 747 unfilled social work positions. Although additional positions were approved after the war began, difficulties in filling them meant that the number of unfilled positions reached about 900.



During the war, 41% of social service departments in those local authorities that took in evacuees reported a manpower shortage.

In Metula and the Eshkol Regional Council, only 37% of social work positions were filled, and in Kiryat Shmona and the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, more than a quarter of social work positions were unfilled.

In the early weeks of the war, one of the most challenging tasks for social workers in the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs was delivering information, and sometimes tragic news, to the families of those affected and murdered in the October 7th massacre. Despite the lack of training and preparation for such a complex situation, the system put in place handled it well.

Social workers struggled to integrate the treatment of evacuees and victims of the war with their regular service users. As a social worker in one of the absorbing authorities described: "A team leader responsible for 20 workers in normal times was managing a quarter of the city, working seven days a week, including Fridays and Saturdays, including Kiddush at the hotel, leaving no time for her routine work. Treatment planning committees did not meet, and we did not carry out orders to return children to their boarding schools – we were in a bubble of emergency care."






 





















 






Evacuee care and main challengesThe study describes a state of chaos in those hotels that took in evacuees at the beginning of the war due to a lack of information, severe manpower shortages, lack of coordination between various government agencies, and the absence of a coordinating authority in the hotels. The prolonged stay in the hotels created serious social problems, including sexual assaults. A senior official from the Tel Aviv Municipality also reported instances of drug use, alcohol, and gambling: "Everything happens there, including domestic violence."



The Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs reported 75 cases of sexual assaults in the evacuee hotels, 93% of which involved minors.

A major issue in caring for evacuees in hotels was the lack of information regarding their needs. The high turnover of care providers, some of whom were volunteers, and the absence of a coordinating authority made it difficult to track the care of evacuees. Attempts to adopt technological tools to report on the characteristics of clients, their needs, and the treatment provided all failed.

The Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs also cared for the orphans of the October 7th massacre and child hostages released from captivity in Gaza. Despite the significant resources invested and the intensive and professional care provided to the children, after months of treatment, many of them still struggle to reintegrate into their families and communities. Moreover, half of them discontinued the emotional/psychological care that is so essential.

The new hardships created by the war led to a variety of creative initiatives by social workers, from the headquarters level, through the ministry's districts, and the social services departments, to the level of social workers who volunteered to assist evacuees in hotels and in the community.

The welfare state systems, led by the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, invested significant efforts in addressing the hardships caused by the war: ensuring the safe evacuation of those directly affected by the war, creating mechanisms to secure the income and compensation to victims, investing resources in the returning children and their families, creating administrative frameworks, recruiting social workers, and formulating plans to deal with the complexity of the evacuees' situation.


The study includes several policy proposals to address the current and future challenges of the welfare system, including:Proposals for emergency situations



Establishing a pool of volunteer social workers who can be mobilized quickly in time of need.

Creating a well-secured, efficient, and easy-to-use computerized system for collecting data on clients for social workers' use.

Preparing an emergency evacuation care procedure that includes clear designation of a coordinating authority; formulating a structured emergency plan that integrates all levels of the system – from local authorities through districts to the national headquarters. This plan should clearly define the roles, responsibilities, authorities, communication channels, and work interfaces with other agencies.


Proposals for the present and long-term



Increasing the welfare budget: Enhancing the budget of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs and strengthening welfare infrastructure to enable the provision of adequate services to the entire population.

Improving the working conditions of social workers: A massive recruitment of personnel into the welfare system, improving the working conditions and salaries of social workers, and ensuring conditions that enable them to cope with complex stress situations.

Equitable funding of social services: A reassessment of the current funding method to ensure a more equitable distribution of resources among local authorities, with a gradual reduction in the extent of matching funds (local authority contributions) in authorities directly affected by the war and in disadvantaged areas.

Unification of welfare services: Consolidation of all welfare systems under a single Ministry of Social Welfare, which will be able to coordinate and manage all activities in the field and optimally utilize the budgets allocated to the sector.


Professor John Gal, one of the study’s authors, said: “The welfare system is blessed with skilled professionals, from welfare policy makers to the frontline workers — all of whom have demonstrated impressive motivation and ability to deal with the complex situation that arose during the war. However, the welfare deficit that the system suffered from prior to the war severely hampered its ability to provide adequate services to the population. This study highlights the urgent need for comprehensive reforms in the welfare sector and for advance preparedness to ensure better readiness for future emergencies.”