Israel’s welfare service system suffers from serious under-budgeting, a shortage of skilled manpower, and unequal distribution of resources across cities, according to a new study at Jerusalem’s Taub Center for Social Policy Studies to mark World Social Work Day on Tuesday.
The event is the key day in the year that social workers worldwide stand together to advance their common message globally. The first World Social Work Day was celebrated in 2007 under the theme “Social Work – Making a World of Difference.”
The initiative was approved by the International Federation of Social Workers member organizations at its general meeting in Australia.
The Taub Center report includes details on the demographic, educational, and occupational characteristics of social workers in this country and the profession’s centrality in the country’s welfare system.
In addition, it describes the constraints and obstacles faced by social workers before October 7 that still persist and have worsened since the Hamas terrorist incursion and the Gaza war against them.
Researchers Shavit Ben-Porat (Madhala) and Prof. John Gal proposed policy directions that can promote the work of social workers in Israel, making it possible for them to carry out their tasks better and to provide accessible and high-quality social services.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare’s budget stood at NIS 12.5 billion in 2022. According to the report, the welfare system needs an additional allocation of about NIS 6 billion shekels to ensure an appropriate level of services, meaning that the current expenditure needs to be raised by about 50%.
They wrote that significant disparities exist among local authorities in the allocation of resources to welfare services provided by their social service departments. The average annual expenditure per served individual in cities ranked as Cluster 1 (the lowest) is less than half of that in cities ranked as Cluster 9 or 10 (the highest). These disparities are related to both a city’s own funding sources and the matching arrangement.
The situation is just as bleak with regard to the filling of social worker positions. In June 2023, there were 747 unfilled positions for social workers in the local authorities’ social service departments.
In municipalities with the lowest socioeconomic ranking (Cluster 1), where social distress is particularly high, the vacancy rates are considerably lower than the national average. Due to the war and increased needs, the ministry has increased the number of positions it partially funds to 370, and the number of unfilled positions now stands at about 900.
The vast majority of workers in the social work field are women
As of 2024, there are over 44,000 registered social workers. In 2020, Jewish women comprised 78% of all registered social workers, while Jewish men constituted 11%. Arab social workers comprised 11%, with a similar gender distribution.
The main sectors in which registered social workers are employed are local government and welfare services, accounting for 40% of the total. An additional 30% are employed in the education system, the healthcare system, and public organizations such as the National Insurance Institute (NII).
The average wage of social workers is lower than the average wage in the economy. Salary level is a significant barrier to hiring new social workers, especially in the social service departments in municipalities and local authorities. Even after eight to 10 years of work experience, the average wage of a social worker is lower than the average wage in the economy and lower than that of other professions.
The wage agreement signed with them in 2022 included an increase in a social worker’s starting salary and a raise for all social workers, with an emphasis on improving the wage increase mechanism during the course of their careers, even for non-managerial positions. Since the agreement went into effect (only the first phase has been implemented thus far), the income level of social workers has increased somewhat, but it still remains low relative to other professions.
Despite the low pay and heavy workload, the social work profession continues to attract young people. Over the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in the number of graduates in social work. In 2019, 1,472 students completed their undergraduate studies in social work, compared to only 850 in 2000, a 73% increase. In the past decade, their number has increased by about one-third.
During the war, the population in need of social worker assistance grew significantly—in the hotels housing the evacuated, in treatment centers, and in various settlements throughout the country.
Steps to improve the circumstances
The Taub Center researchers suggest two main steps to improve the situation:
Filling positions and adding new ones—Currently, there are about 900 unfilled positions. Immediate action is needed to fill the vacancies in social service departments in the local authorities, Ben-Porat and Gal wrote.
In addition, the number of social worker positions needs to be increased across all social service systems, with the goal of ensuring continuous care at a reasonable level for welfare service recipients: about 885 new positions for social service departments, 300 positions for the healthcare system to treat those who were mentally or physically harmed in the massacre or the war; 110 positions to provide services within the framework of the NII and the Ministry of Defense; and about 50 community social workers who can contribute their experience to rebuilding devastated communities in the Gaza periphery. In total, some 2,250 social workers need to be recruited to social service systems in the coming years.
Recruitment and retention: Efforts should be concentrated on recruiting and retaining social workers. Possible steps to accomplish this include encouraging the mobilization of social workers, offering incentives to work within the national welfare service system, increasing wages through early implementation of the second phase of the wage agreement, and providing regular on-the-job training for all social workers.
Bem-Porat stated that “following the events of October 7 and the war, hundreds of thousands more people who are in need of professional support and assistance have been added to the workload of social workers. For them to provide adequate support, a significant addition is needed in the budget allocated to the social services system and in the number of social workers in the national welfare service system."
The Taub Center is an independent, nonpartisan socioeconomic research institute that provides decision-makers and the public with research and findings on some of Israel's most critical issues in education, health, welfare, labor markets, and economic policy.