131,666 Holocaust survivors are eligible for allowances, 22.5% of them over the age of 90
Ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day to be marked on the evening of Sunday 5/5/24, and according to data on Holocaust survivors recognized as eligible for National Insurance allowances - in Israel there are currently 131,166 Holocaust survivors receiving allowances, such as old age, income supplement, long-term care, attendance and survivors.
- Of these Holocaust survivors, 70.7% receive a long-term care benefit and 31.5% receive an old-age pension with income supplement – as is known, the National Insurance Institute pays an allowance increment, due to the low income threshold of the senior citizen and to ensure at least a minimum income for subsistence.
- Of the 131,666 Holocaust survivors, 61.6% are women and 38.4% are men.
- 37.3% of all survivors are married.
- Among Holocaust survivors, 22.5% are aged 90 and above (29,625 people), compared to only 8.1% of the population aged 90 and above in these ages.
Old-age pension recipients with increment of income supplement
- As mentioned above, 31.5% of Holocaust survivors receive an increment of income supplement to old-age pension from the National Insurance, compared to 24% of the population in this age group.
- 41,459 survivors with low income threshold receive income supplement, of which 70.6% are single and 29.4% are married.
Overall, 32,351 people representing 78% of all survivors currently receive income supplement.
It should be noted that most of those eligible for income supplement (whose financial situation is more difficult, as mentioned above) are 80-89 years old and constitute 24.6% of all survivors.
Long-term care benefit recipients
93,152 survivors, which represent 46.1% of long-term care benefit recipients, are aged 73 and above, and constitute 70.7% of all survivors.
Among them:
- 60,726 are women (65.2%).
- 24,673 are aged 90+ (26.5%).
- 22,907 are entitled to a level 6 benefit, the highest level (24.6%) indicating the most difficult nursing medical condition.
Yoav Ben Zur, Minister of Labor: "Our public, state and social responsibility is to assist Holocaust survivors and ensure that they live with the dignity they deserve. The National Insurance Institute's assistance in providing allowances and alleviating loneliness is doubly important to those who have gone through the worst. It is precisely in times of war and after the terrible massacre of October 7th that the need to give a shell to those who were saved from the worst takes on an unparalleled national, public and human meaning."
Zvika Cohen, Acting Director General of the National Insurance: "Every day, employees of the National Insurance Institute provide social assistance to Holocaust survivors in granting them allowances, in reducing loneliness and in direct contact with community entities to promote assistance and human envelope. It is our public responsibility, for all of us, to check whether there are those around us who need relief, support and guidance and if necessary to contact the official bodies to ensure that a response is provided. We at the National Insurance continue to wake up every morning with a sense of public mission and we will turn every stone to provide help, to anyone who needs it."
If you know of a Holocaust survivor who does not receive any allowance, whose nursing condition has been aggravated, who has a need to relieve loneliness – you can contact the Counseling Service for the Elderly and their Families, of the National Insurance, by telephone: * 9696 or 02-6709857. A response is given from Sunday to Thursday between the hours: 09:00 – 13:30.