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• National Insurance Institute // Photo: Oren Ben Hakun

The National Insurance Institute has expressed its willingness to consider a series of proposals and initiatives in favor of the self-employed sector in Israel - Israel Today has learned.
This is a summary of a meeting held last Thursday between members of the National Insurance Commission to examine the situation of the self-employed and self-employed in Israel and Roy Cohen, president of the Lahav Chamber of Independent Organizations and Small Business.

At the end of the committee's first session, Social Security representatives expressed their willingness to consider various solutions that could be implemented immediately to facilitate the self-employed population on the following issues: To authorize independent women on maternity leave to ensure that the business in managing them continues to exist without fear of being denied maternity allowance; Grant a self-employed injury allowance after a 6-day absence, instead of 12 today; Changing the income test - allowing self-employed people to work even after retirement, without losing the old-age pension, since the self-employed have no pension.

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The committee will also look at the relief of the issue of sickness pay for serious illnesses and even the implementation of the unemployment benefit model for the self-employed, in a way that does not involve budgetary exposure.

As part of the meeting, Cohen and Lahav's economist, Dr. Robbie Natanzon, presented alarming figures regarding the self-employed population. In 2018, for example, approximately 44,000 businesses (close to 900 per week) were closed out of approximately 540,000 small and medium-sized businesses operating in Israel.

"Not really insurance"

According to the most recent Social Security data, referring to 2017, the median income of the self-employed is less than NIS 5,500 - about 20% lower than the median income of employees, which amounts to NIS 6,700. The self-employed are also obligated to set aside some of their income in favor of the social rights of their salaried employees - meaning that on their face their clean income should have been significantly higher than that of salaried employees.

Lahav president Roi Cohen told Israel Today: "Unfortunately, the self-employed sector now considers Social Security payments income tax in every respect. There is no social safety net for them and this is not really insurance. A deep plowing must be made to change the perceptions set in the many regulatory divisions - Led by the Ministry of Finance, the Tax Authority, the National Insurance Institute and the local government - towards the business sector, with emphasis on small and independent businesses. "

He said, "Discriminating against the self-employed and denying them unemployment benefit does not align with the purpose of the law and the principles underlying social security theory. I hope the new Social Security Commission will make courageous decisions that will be implemented and not dust in a forgotten drawer."