The rate of government expenditures on social services has continued to decline for the fourth straight year, according to a study published by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel.

The study also found that defense expenditures, on the other hand, have continued to increase. Even prior to the Lebanon war, the study found, the defense budget had returned to the level that was at the height of the wave of terror attacks in 2002.

According to the study, the 2007 state budget is similar to the 2006 state budget, and the social services expenditure per capita is even lower, due to population growth.

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The Taub center publishes the study each year, on the eve of the introduction of the state budget in the Knesset.

Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson will submit the 2007 state budget proposals and Economic Arrangements Law to the Knesset on Monday.

The study found that in the year 2000 government expenditures on social services such as education, health, and welfare comprised 55 percent of the state budget. By 2006, this figure had dropped to 51.1 percent.

This is a cumulative drop of 11 percent, which amounts to roughly NIS 12 billion.

The defense budget, on the other hand, amounted in 2005 to 25.3 percent of the available government budget (the budget that remains once the government has paid off debts).

This equals the level of the defense budget in 2002, which was the highest since the early 1990's, according to the Taub center.

Absolute military consumption has also increased, by three percent since 2000.

Budgetary cuts primarily targeted social services
The study reported that the budgetary cuts in recent years, designed to strengthen the private sector at the expense of the public sector, were carried out primarily at the expense of social services. Roughly 75 percent of the cuts were in social services, despite the fact that social service spending is only half the state budget.

A significant portion of the budget cuts have affected social security stipends, which have decreased in real terms by 12 percent in the past four years.

This includes a 45 percent decrease in expenditures for child allowances, a 47 percent decrease in expenditures for unemployment benefits, and a 26 percent drop in spending on social security benefits for low-income individuals.

The recent economic growth and falling unemployment were not enough to make up for the budgetary cuts in social spending, according to the study, which has resulted in increased poverty.