Already, the total share of citizens receiving aid from the welfare agency has doubled since the reform passed in 2018, from about 16% to about 30%, twice the average for OECD countries.<\/p>\n
\t The doubling of the number of individuals receiving care was accompanied by a tripling of expenditures on long-term care, from NIS 7 billion ($2.4b) pre-reform to NIS 21 billion ($7.1b) today, an increase ten times greater than the Finance Ministry predicted on the eve of the 2018 changes.<\/p>\n Moreover, the report found that the reforms \u2013 which included expanding the criteria for benefits, and establishing that a person\u2019s level of aid would not go down even if his situation improved \u2013 were passed with almost no attention to actuarial assessments.<\/p>\n Not only was no actuarial report prepared to go along with the proposal of the reform, but actuarial considerations also weren\u2019t presented before the relevant committee in the Knesset, nor to administrators making subsequent managerial decisions.<\/p>\n Additionally, despite a 2015 government resolution that the socio-economic cabinet would hold a meeting every year on the NII\u2019s stability \u2013 including discussion of an actuarial report \u2013 not one such discussion was held, with the exception of a single meeting in 2018 that ended without any operational decision having been made.<\/p>\n \t The report also found that from the years 2024-2026, the NII approved a budget deficit without discussing measures that might be taken to reduce it.<\/p>\n The comptroller also investigated Israel\u2019s means of conducting dependency assessments for potential recipients of NII aid. Unlike all other OECD countries, in Israel such assessments can be made via documents only, with just 1% of them made face-to-face in the applicant\u2019s home.<\/p>\n Englman found that requests assessed using documents alone were approved at about a 16% higher rate than the small minority that included an in-person assessment.<\/p>\n Additionally, when the same person was assessed by both the NII and his health insurance fund, in 75% of cases the NII assessed the person to be eligible for greater need \u2013 an average of some 1.7 levels higher on the same seven-level scale.<\/p>\n The comptroller\u2019s audit, conducted in collaboration with his counterparts in eight European countries, primarily dealt with Israel\u2019s preparations for the aging of its population.<\/p>\n Whereas prior to the reform in 2018, some 180,000 citizens were receiving old-age pensions, that figure has more than doubled to some 392,000 today.<\/p>\n The share of Israel\u2019s residents who are 65 and older, though tempered by the nation\u2019s high birth rate, is nevertheless expected to continue to rise from 13% at the end of 2024 to some 15% in 2050.<\/p>\n According to Englman, the state faces a shortage of geriatric physicians and hospital beds, and is primarily responsive to existing illness rather than preventative of future problems for the currently healthy.<\/p>\n \u201cAdditionally, areas such as retirement preparation, employment, volunteering, and activities to mitigate loneliness lack coordinated and comprehensive management, clear targets, and inter-ministerial coordination mechanisms,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \t In response to the report, the NII appeared unperturbed about the looming crisis and said it remained committed to paying out and even increasing benefits.<\/p>\n The NII said it is \u201cluckily not a private company, and it doesn\u2019t meet its bottom line on the backs of citizens, but rather is obligated to provide services to those who built the state and paid into social security their whole lives, and are entitled to those funds when their health requires it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe budgets were passed in the 2018 reforms after years in which senior citizens didn\u2019t receive their money, and after harsh public criticism of their treatment; the state comptroller wrote about this at length, and after that, the reform was put into action.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow is the time to remember that old-age pensions haven\u2019t increased in over a decade, while the economic reality has changed from end to end. The job of the NII is to protect and defend senior citizens, and to provide them assistance that is their right, not out of charity,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n \u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/p>\n \t\t\t
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\n\t\tPeople walk outside the National Insurance Institute offices in the city of Hadera, January 26, 2026. (Tal Gal\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/F250318AMA06-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tState Comptroller Matanyahu Englman visits Kibbutz Misgav Am on the Israeli border with Lebanon during the war with Iran and Hezbollah and missile fire toward Israel, March 18, 2026. (Ayal Margolin\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/F201026YS15-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tThe National Insurance Institute offices in Jerusalem, October 26, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel\/ Flash90\/File)<\/p>\n
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