Treasury reaching hand into Holocaust survivors' accounts

The Finance Ministry has sent letters to thousands of Holocaust survivors in recent weeks, threatening to cut off their survivor benefits if they do not sign and return a form enclosed with the letter. The form gives the treasury irrevocable power of attorney to withdraw any funds from the survivors' bank accounts which the Finance Ministry payments department believes were paid to the survivors in error.

The Finance Ministry form requires approval from the survivor's bank and states that failure to return the form by August 31 will result in the suspension of benefit payments. Some of the survivors who received this form were reportedly very distressed by the request. Some agreed to speak only if their names were not published, out of concern for repercussions from the treasury. "My body is already weak," said one survivor ill with cancer, "but my head still works a little, and my hand refuses to sign."

The letter was sent to Holocaust survivors who began receiving benefits in 2007, following passage of a law which provides survivors with benefits if they were not receiving a pension from any other source. The legislation followed media coverage regarding poverty among Holocaust survivors.

Under the program, the Finance Ministry budgeted benefits for 8,000 survivors and makes monthly payments of NIS 1,000, but has thus far only identified 3,000 who meet the necessary criteria. Haaretz recently reported that many of those who do qualify for benefits encounter obstacles in actually arranging the payments. The ministry is now requiring that those survivors who have qualified for these benefits agree to have the sums which the treasury believes were paid in error withdrawn from their bank accounts.

Rafi Pinto, who heads the Finance Ministry's department responsible for payment of benefits to Holocaust survivors, said that all of the approximately 40,000 survivors living in Israel - and not just those qualifying under the 2007 law - are required to submit a similar form.

The outgoing director general of the Pensioner Affairs Ministry, Avi Bitzur, said, however, "it is doubtful that they know what they're signing," and added that he himself had not known about the form. "They have exploited my departure and that of [Pensioner Affair Minister under the Olmert government] Rafi Eitan, and gone wild." He added that the treasury could have made use of volunteers from the Pensioner Affairs Ministry to go to the survivors' homes and explain the procedure.

One survivor who received the form said, "From the moment I took the letter out of my mailbox, I didn't feel well all night." He said he was then hospitalized with chest pains. "I have been in Israel for 53 years and I have no complaints, but this [conduct] is truly humiliating. The power of attorney is heavy-handed and crude. All those years that we fell between the cracks and didn't receive a pension. We were pleased with the new law, and now I've felt bad. They can also take this small amount."

The treasury explained that the concern is that the recipients will receive a duplication of the new benefits, which is barred by law, and then the duplicate benefit would have to be withdrawn retroactively.

On the other hand, this particular group of recipients had not received benefits for the past sixty years and the 2007 legislation was designed to rectify this. Some may ask, if the Holocaust survivors didn't settle scores with the government in the past, why should the state settle scores with them over every shekel? And if a mistake was made, why did it take the government two years to send out the forms? The Finance Ministry has not responded to these questions.

The ministry has noted that all Holocaust survivor benefit recipients were required to submit the form, thus providing a means for the repayment of benefits improperly deposited to which the recipients are not entitled for one reason or another. The ministry added that those survivors who have a problem meeting the deadline would be given an additional month to submit the form.