National Insurance head says unemployment, stipends won’t be paid before Pesach

The head of the National Insurance Institute says unemployment payments and emergency stipends won’t be transferred ahead of the upcoming Passover holiday.

“Unfortunately and despite great efforts, we will not be able to meet the schedule and deliver the unemployment benefits,” Meir Spiegler tells the Maariv daily, before adding that he hopes that the emergency stipends for children may be processed before the holiday but those for the elderly definitely won’t be.

“We usually handle 17,000 unemployment benefit requests every month, but we now have more than a million. This month, we will pay 700,000 – 800,000 advances of NIS 1,000 – 2,000 for workers who were furloughed. The systems are not built for more than that,” he says.

Israel has more than a million jobless citizens for the first time in its existence, as the coronavirus pandemic puts more and more workplaces out of business.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week announced that families would receive a one-time payment of NIS 500 per child (approximately $140), up to the fourth child, ahead of the holiday. There will also be stipends for the elderly, he said. He said these payments would be approved via emergency legislation, and that payments will be made directly into bank accounts, with no bureaucratic red tape.

He vowed the payments would be made before Passover.