Needy Holocaust survivors lose benefits to convoluted bureaucracy — report

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira issues a report Wednesday harshly criticizing the government’s handling of care for Israel’s dwindling population of Holocaust survivors.

The report focuses in part on the labyrinthine bureaucracy tasked with caring for survivors, who are eligible for a wide assortment of financial and other benefits from many different government agencies. Many survivors struggle to navigate the bureaucracy, and in the end fail to apply for benefits. Similarly, large funds slated for survivors go unspent in the ministries of welfare, housing and social equality, the report finds.

“NGOs and organizations, joined by many volunteers from all parts of the country, work to fill the gaps for needy survivors,” the report notes. But these laudable efforts cannot fully compensate for the lack of a central governmental address through which survivors can receive their benefits, or which can coordinate policy and needs-assessment in a systematic way, the report concludes.