Dynamics of Change in Poverty Measures amongst Social Service Users in Israel: A Comparison of Standard Care and a Poverty-Aware Programme

Abstract

Abstract Although social service departments (SSDs) in Israel are the main institutions through which social workers provide social care to people in poverty, the dynamics between the multiple dimensions of poverty amongst service users (SUs) and the consequences of social care to these dynamics have not been systematically explored. The current study is the first study that aims to fill this gap by comparing multidimensional poverty amongst 159 SUs. The study compared two kinds of social care provided by the same SSDs: standard social care and a poverty-aware programme. Data were collected at two time points by telephone interviews and was analysed using independent samples t test, the paired-sample t test, the exact McNemar test for dichotomous variables, the Tukey test, the χ2 test and linear regression. Findings indicate that SUs who were treated in the poverty-aware programme received more assistance in a larger range of areas and a significantly positive change was found amongst them in a variety of measures. The discussion explores the importance of expanding research on the contribution of SSD’s social care in order to adapt public services to the needs of SUs and to make them a vehicle in the fight against poverty.