The doubling of allowances will stop - in the field they fear the consequences Israel today

The temporary order allowing the payment of double allowances expires in the middle of February.

If a quick legislative amendment is not carried out that will extend it again, thousands of families in Israel, from the most weakened populations, will find themselves facing a broken trough.

Last time, in December 2021, the former Minister of Finance, MK Avigdor Lieberman, extended the curfew at the last minute, so that it would apply to the year 2022. In two weeks, this curfew will expire. , are promoting a bill that will anchor the issue permanently.

The process takes time.

Minister Margi, photo: Gideon Markovich

Israel Hayom learned that the memorandum of the bill was published at the end of the week.

However, until the completion of the legislative process in the Knesset, an immediate response is required from the Ministry of Finance.

Unequal legislation

The law defines unemployment benefits as an allowance and prevents the payment of double allowances to those entitled.

When a person is fired from his job, if he receives a living allowance from the National Insurance - such as a disability allowance, income support or alimony - he will not be able to receive unemployment benefits either.

In such a case, the state compensates that person for the lower allowance.

Associations and social organizations have been warning for years that this is unequal legislation, which harms the most vulnerable sections of society.

"It's a great injustice," says Tali Nir, CEO of the 121 organization - an engine for social change. "Unemployment benefits are not an allowance.

Every person who is fired from his job needs basic security to organize himself and find a new job.

Unemployment benefits must not be denied to those who receive subsistence allowances, these people will deteriorate into poverty."

"Unemployment benefits are not an allowance."

Nir, photography: none

During the Corona crisis, tens of thousands of people were laid off, and thus discovered that if they received subsistence allowances, they would not be entitled to unemployment benefits.

Elderly people who went to work because the senior citizen's pension was not enough for them to live with dignity and were fired, discovered that they were not entitled to unemployment benefits.

After a public protest broke out, the Minister of Finance at the time, Yisrael Katz, introduced a temporary order allowing the payment of unemployment benefits to those entitled to subsistence allowances, which Lieberman extended.

A cry that is not heard

Unlike during the Corona period, now the law affects a total of several thousand families - mainly single mothers who receive alimony from the National Insurance and elderly people after retirement age who do not have a pension.

The cry of these no one hears.

M. is a single mother, 49 years old, from the Sharon area, who receives a disability allowance of NIS 2,000.

At the end of August she was fired from her job, and since September she has been receiving unemployment benefits amounting to NIS 2,500.

Together with the alimony she receives from her divorce in the amount of NIS 4,000, she survives on a monthly income of NIS 8,500.

Organization 121 unites under it a series of social organizations working to change the law.

Together they turned to the Minister of Welfare Yaakov Margi, and he directed the National Insurance to promote headquarters work.

A memorandum of law, which regulates the issue and cancels the classification of unemployment benefits as an allowance, was published in recent days.

However, the legislative process takes time.

If the temporary order is not extended, M's disability allowance will be offset.

"I am helpless and don't know how I will manage to survive. The state hurts the most disadvantaged population, not just me. Any amount of money helps us survive. Don't take it from us."

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