Last update - 00:00 02/01/2008
Gov't meets to set criteria for elderly, Holocaust survivor stipends
By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent
Welfare Minister Itzhak Herzog and Minister for Pensioners' Affairs Rafi Eitan are set to meet again Wednesday morning with Prime Minister's Office director-general Ra'anan Dinor in an attempt to reach an agreement on the dispute surrounding allowances for the elderly and added assistance to Holocaust survivors. Finance officials will not take part in the meeting.
The treasury is interested in passing a law that would differentiate between senior citizens according to age, so that the elderly above the age of 80 would receive a higher stipend.
Herzog is against the treasury's proposal, which was approved this week by Finance Minister Roni Bar-On, because it sets a precedent against the principal of universality regarding national insurance which assures that everyone receives an equal stipend.
The proposed bill also promises that the 85,000 immigrants from the fomer Soviet Union who suffered under Nazi occupation but were not in concentration camps or ghettos (what has been named the "second circle" of survivors) would also receive a special bonus to their regular allowance.
As for the 8,550 Holocaust survivors that were in ghettos or concentration camps, it was agreed in a meeting Tuesday with Dinor that the government would pay up to NIS 1200 a month, depending on the assistance the survivors already receive.
The treasury's offer regarding the allowance of the "second circle" -which is about NIS 1 billion - would be differential according to age. The amount given would also depend on the income of the elderly and whether or not they own an apartment or not. The allowance would range from NIS 700 a month for people over the age of 80 who do not have an apartment and NIS 150 for people in their 70s who do own an apartment.
According to Herzog, both Dinor and Eitan are also against violating the universality principal of national insurance. In response, an official in the Finance Ministry said "all this is fine and dandy, but if we divide the money evenly everybody will receive less".
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