Old-Age

You can check your entitlement to the old-age pension by means of a simulator (in Hebrew). By answering a number of questions, you can examine whether you meet the conditions of entitlement and may therefore be entitled to the pension.

This site describes the five conditions that you have to meet in order to be entitled to the pension.

A list of documents that you must submit appears on the claim form and on the explanatory page attached to it. A missing document may delay the handling of your claim.

Please note that you must attach to the claim form authorization from your bank noting the name and address of the bank and the number of the bank account to which the pension is to be transferred or, alternatively, you can provide a canceled check.

The basic old-age pension is NIS 1,481 (as of 01.01.2012) for an individual and NIS 2,226 (as of 01.01.2012) for a couple (the pension for a couple is composed of a pension for an individual plus an increment for the spouse). The basic old-age pension for those age 80 or older is NIS 1,565 (as of 01.01.2012) for an individual and NIS 2,310 (as of 01.01.2012) for a couple.

If each of the couple separately meet the entitlement conditions for an old-age pension, each of them receives an individual pension.

The following increments are added to the above amounts:

If your income is a bit higher than the “maximum income,” you will receive a “partial old-age pension” - the full pension that is due to you, less 60% of the amount of your income that exceeds the “maximum income” - provided that the amount of the “partial pension” due to you is at least NIS 148 (as of 01.01.2012) .

You can waive the partial old-age pension. The period of time that you do not receive the partial old-age pension is taken into account in calculating your seniority increment and pension deferral increment.

Additional details are available in the section Means test from retirement age to the age of entitlement to old-age pension

 Health insurance contributions

Health insurance contributions are deducted from your old-age pension at the rate of NIS 189 (as of 01.01.2012) for an individual and NIS 274 (as of 01.01.2012) for a couple. If you are entitled to an income supplement, the health insurance deduction is NIS 100 (as of 01.01.2012) for both an individual and a couple.

Please note:
-    If you are working as a salaried employee and your employer deducts health insurance contributions from your salary, you must notify your employer to stop that deduction.
-    If you receive an increment to your pension for your spouse, health insurance contributions for a couple are deducted from your pension, even if your spouse is working as a salaried employee.
-    If you do not receive an increment to your old-age pension for your spouse because she is receiving a pension from the National Insurance Institute, health insurance contributions for a couple are deducted from your pension.

Under the law, the National Insurance Institute will not pay you several benefits for the same period of time, and you must choose one of benefits (except for a child allowance and long-term care benefit, which are paid to you even when you are entitled to an old-age pension).

     If you are entitled to both an old-age pension and a survivors’ pension (widow/er’s pension), and you have completed a qualifying period, you will receive a full old-age pension as well as half of the survivors’ pension due to you.
Qualification: This right is not available to a housewife who is entitled to an old-age pension.

     If you are a woman who is entitled to an old-age pension, whether or not you have completed the qualifying period (such as that required by a housewife), and you are also entitled to a benefit for dependents of a work injured person, you will receive the full old-age pension along with half the dependents’ benefit, or half the old-age pension along with the full dependents' benefit.

      If you are a man who is entitled to both an old-age pension and a permanent work disability pension, you must this choose one of the benefits. If you choose the work disability pension, the amount of the pension will not be less than the amount of the old-age pension due to you.

Under certain circumstances, the National Insurance Institute will capitalize the disability pension (paying a lump sum instead of a pension), and after the capitalization, you will receive the old-age pension due to you.

         Recipients of a general disability pension and recipients of an income support benefit receive the general disability pension or the income support benefit until retirement age. Once they reach retirement age, they begin to receive only the old-age pension.
A person who received a general disability pension close to the date on which he becomes entitled to the old-age pension will receive an old-age pension that is no less than the last monthly disability pension paid to him, which will be updated at the rates and on the dates that the general disability pension is updated.

        Recipients of an unemployment benefit, both men and women, receive the unemployment benefit until the retirement age determined for men. As of the retirement age determined for men, they begin to receive only the old-age pension.

You must submit the claim for income supplement on the Income Supplement Claim form at a local branch of the National Insurance Institute. You can submit it together with the Old-Age Pension Claim or later on, when your income (or your spouse’s income) decreases to the rate entitling you to the income supplement. The income supplement is paid to you as of the month in which you submit the claim, for as long as you are entitled to it.

If you intend to leave Israel for any reason, you must inform the National Insurance Institute. If you depart without doing so, you may accumulate debts that you will be required to repay to the National Insurance Institute.

If you are in a country that has signed a social insurance convention with Israel, your pension will be paid to you in that country, as specified in the convention.

Under the convention of friendship, commerce and navigation signed between the State of Israel and the United States (not a social security convention), you will continue to receive your old-age pension while you are staying in the United States, on condition that you began receiving the pension before you departed for the United States.

Those living abroad and receiving an old-age pension from the National Insurance Institute are required, once a year, to submit a Life Certificate to the National Insurance Institute in Israel.

Once a year, a lump-sum heating grant is paid to recipients of old-age pensions who fulfill the following conditions:
1.   The recipient received an income supplement to the old-age pension in one of the following months: October, November or December of that year.
2.   The recipient lives in an area defined as “cold” by the law, for at least two months.

The grant, which is given to the family, is NIS 536 (as of 01.01.2012) , and is paid automatically as an addition to the pension for the month of October.

Local authorities
The Ministry of Transport
The Ministry of Construction and Housing
The Israel Broadcasting Authority
The health funds
The Israel Electric Corporation and Bezeq.

The death grant is a lump-sum grant of NIS 8,475 (as of 01.01.2012) , which is paid in the following cases:
 

     Upon the death of a person who received an old age pension, survivors’ pension, disability pension, attendance allowance, work injury allowance or volunteers’ benefit from the National Insurance Institute, a lump-sum grant is paid to the person who was the deceased’s spouse at the time of his death. If there is no spouse, the grant is paid to the child of the benefit recipient, provided that the child meets the definition of a child under the National Insurance Law. The death grant is usually paid automatically and there is no need to submit a claim.

      Upon the death of the spouse of a person receiving an old-age pension with an income supplement, the death grant is automatically paid to the pension recipient.

     A death grant is also paid to a person who paid most of the expenses for the gravestone after the death of both spouses within a short period of time, and if all the following conditions are met (in this case, a claim for a death grant must be submitted):

1.   The spouse was entitled to a death grant by virtue of the deceased's entitlement.

2.   The spouse of the deceased died within 100 days of his spouse's death, and no death grant was paid.

3.   The deceased has no child as defined by the National Insurance Law.

4.   The deceased died on or after January 1, 2003.

Please note:

The death certificate is issued by the Ministry of the interior.

The son or daughter of an insured person (including foster child, adopted child and grandchild supported entirely by the insured person, except for a married child) who meets one of the following conditions: *up to age 18; *if completing his studies at a post-elementary educational institution or studying in a framework to complete matriculation exams, or having a learning disability and studying in a framework recognized by the NII– up to age 20; *if in a pre-army IDF framework – up to age 20;* if a volunteer in a framework of public service for up to 12 months and his army service is deferred due to this volunteering – up to age 21; *if serving compulsory service in the IDF – up to age 24; *if serving in the voluntary National Service – up to age 24;*if studying in an "atuda" framework and deferring army service due to studies – up to age 24.

To receive an old-age pension, you must submit a claim at the National Insurance Institute branch closest to your place of residence, on the Old-Age Pension Claim form, near the time that you reach the age of entitlement to an old-age pension, and no later than 12 months from that date. If your birth month is not recorded on your identity card, you will be deemed to have been born on April 1^st in the year of your birth.

If you submit the claim after the time in which you became entitled to the pension, the National Insurance Institute is entitled to pay you the pension for a maximum of 12 months retroactively.
You must enter all the required details on the claim form and provide the claims officer with any document that proves your entitlement to the pension or increment. The claim form can be sent to the NII by mail.

For those receiving other benefits from the National Insurance Institute:
When you reach retirement age, you must submit a claim for an old-age pension.
Ttransition from receiving another benefit to receiving an old-age pension. 

If you have no income, an income supplement to the old-age pension is paid under that National Insurance Law, to ensure you a minimum income at the following rates:

Amounts of old-age pension with income supplement for those under the age of 70:

Amounts of old-age pension with income supplement for those 70 years of age and under the age of 80: 

Amounts of old-age pension with income supplement for those 80 years of age or older: 

If you are a resident of Israel who is not covered by old-age insurance and you are not entitled to an old-age pension because you immigrated to Israel after the age of 60-62, you will receive a special benefit from the National Insurance Institute, funded by the Ministry of Finance, provided that you meet all the conditions specified in the law.

If the recipient of an old-age pension dies and the full pension due to him is not collected, the uncollected pension (without the income supplement) is paid to his dependents, (widow, widower or orphans who are entitled to a survivors' pension). If there are no dependent survivors, the uncollected pension (but no more than the amount of the pension for the last 6 months before the death of the person entitled to the pension) is paid to whomever proves that he provided the pension recipient with essential products or services during the last year of his life and was not paid for them. Please note: the right to an old-age pension cannot be inherited.

In order to receive the uncollected pension, please fill out the Pension Balance Claim form.