The Finance Ministry intends to advance a legislative amendment that will allow the payment of an adjustment grant to workers aged 67 and over who were laid off or placed on unpaid leave due to the war who are not entitled to unemployment benefits, a Finance Ministry representative said at a discussion held Monday morning in the Knesset Finance Committee on the Finance Ministry's outline for economic assistance to civilians during the war.
The grant to be paid will be in the framework of the grant paid to seniors over the age of 67 who were laid off during the COVID-67 pandemic. As reported last week in Israel Hayom, the Finance Ministry's outline did not include the country's weakest populations, including, as noted, elderly people aged 4 and over who were laid off or placed on unpaid leave who are not entitled to unemployment benefits and who are forced to live on old-age pensions and income supplemental payments, which together amount to NIS 000,<> a month.
Finance Minister Smotrich, last week: "We have built a strong economy - we will pay the price of war" // Photo:
Association 121, which together with about 50 other business and social organizations presented an outline for assisting workers during this period, welcomed the decision. Yekutiel Meshi, director of policy promotion and government relations at the association, said: "This is an important decision. There are 200,67 workers over the age of <> in the economy, many of whom live without a pension at all and are forced to subsist on salaries and old-age pensions, so they work because they have to. We are pleased that the Knesset members joined the issue and caused the Ministry of Finance to formulate a response for them in the form of adjustment grants."
He added: "We must not forget the workers who were left behind even under the current framework, who are hourly workers who are not entitled to compensation at all for the hours they did not work, unemployed without continuity of employment for more than six months, and returning unemployed people whose unemployment benefits are cut. We will continue to work with the government to make sure that no worker affected by the war is left behind."
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