Social Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog on Monday charged the treasury with blocking aid to Holocaust survivors in distress.

"Resources are needed in order to cope with the crisis encountered by survivors, but until now, the treasury has refused to discuss any of the alternatives and models proposed by us and others," Herzog told the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee.

Herzog said he has asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to hold a debate on the matter in the plenum immediately so that funding in the 2008 state budget be allocated for some of the recommendations made by an inter-ministerial committee headed by the Social Welfare Ministry's director general.

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However, the Finance Ministry said the plan developed by the committee is unworkable.

The plan costs NIS 1.2 billion, but the amount required will be reduced annually as the number of 256,000 survivors living here dwindles. The aid includes financial assistance, health and welfare benefits, assistance for facilitating the receiving of various benefits, and legislation that would give the whole package legal backing.

The plan calls for survivors to receive an additional NIS 1,040 per month if their income is less than NIS 3,221 a month for a single person, or NIS 4,269 for a couple, in order to ensure a dignified subsistence. Nearly 170,000 Israeli survivors receive no compensation payments.

The plan defines a Holocaust survivor as someone who lived under Nazi rule in Germany, areas under occupied German rule or countries that cooperated with the Nazis. The list of countries that are included in this definition, along with relevant dates, was compiled with the help of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem.