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Israel: By Ruth Sinai, the Haaretz
Minister in the Finance
Ministry, Meir Sheetrit, said Tuesday that every elderly and disabled
person should be required to report at a branch of the post office or
National Insurance Institute each year to prove that he is living and
entitled to benefits. When asked how elderly in
wheelchairs or hospitals would get there, he answered, "That doesn't
interest me. See how they'll run in order to get money." Sheetrit made the comments
during a tense meeting of the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee convened
Tuesday to clarify sharp accusations the minister made two weeks ago
against the NII. During the discussion, he repeated his claims that the
NII wastes between five to ten billion shekels annually due to failed
management and outdated calculations. Head of the NII, Dr. Yigal
Ben Shalom and his senior aides refuted Sheetrit's claims one by one,
including those that the NII doesn't collect money owed, doesn't impose
income taxes on benefits, and pays benefits to the dead and Israelis who
no longer live in the country. Head of the population registry in the
Interior Ministry, Herzl Gadaj, who was also present at the meeting,
claimed that like other government ministries, the NII depends on
demographic information that is not up to date. But NII officials said in response that they update their files twice weekly according to the Interior Ministry's data bank, and that ever claim regarding information that isn't up to date should be directed to the population registry. Sheetrit also claimed that senior Palestinian Authority officials, such as Jibril Rajoub and Hanan Ashrawi, receive children allowances from NII, but a check into the NII data bank failed to find their names among the recipients. Copyright © 2004
Global Action on Aging |
