Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided that the new stipend for Holocaust survivors would also be available to Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, thereby doubling the number of recipients of the NIS 120 million available for 2008.

The decision to grant the allowance to non-survivors means that each recipient receives NIS 83 per month (approximately $20), less than half of the sum originally intended per person.

Under the terms of the decision announced Monday, the government will allocate NIS 120 million for the allowances in 2008 and NIS 240 million in 2009, with the sum ultimately rising to more than NIS 300 million in 2011, at which point the monthly payment will be NIS 520 per couple.

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But this is still much lower, by dozens of percent, than the sum recommended by the interministerial committee on whose work the ministers claim to have based their decision.

The committee proposed from the beginning to use the broadest possible definition of "Holocaust survivor" and include all those who had been living in territory occupied by the Nazis or their allies, including North Africa, as well as people who had fled to other countries or areas where there was no occupation.

According to this definition, there are roughly 60,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel in need of the benefit.

But a Haaretz investigation revealed the number of recipients was double that presented to the committee.

A source close to the panel told Haaretz that estimation of 120,000 recipients includes tens of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who cannot be defined as Holocaust survivors.