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Officials promise no pension cuts despite scare
Deputy finance minister seeks to mollify fears that pension funds will be slashed annually by 1.5%, leaving seniors NIS 1,000 out of pocket; 'There's nothing to worry about. No need for protests.'
Deputy Finance Minister Yitzhak Cohen (Shas) announced Thursday that his ministry will not approve cuts to old-age pension which were insured in pension funds that ran into a deficit.
“The instruction by Minister Moshe Kahlon is unequivocally clear,” Cohen said to Ynet. “There will not be a situation where someone deducts pensioners’ rights in order to solve a problem of raising the retirement age for women. I spoke today with the Chairman of the Histadrut Labor Federation Avi Nissenkorn and I told him there was nothing to worry about. Nothing is going to happen and there is no need for protests.”
The concern was sparked after it was announced that pension funds were facing a crisis and that, not for the first time, elderly people would be paying the price.
(Photo: Shutterstock)
After an accumulated deficit of billions of shekels, the group “Amitim” which manages 8 pension funds, announced a cut of 1.5% to an estimated quarter of a million retirees immediately after Passover.
The cuts would mean a slash of NIS 1,000 per year for each pensioner.
Cohen said that he had discussed the matter with Yoav Ben Or, manager of the old-age pension funds, and that they agreed to talk about it further next week.
Deputy Finance Minister Yitzhak Cohen
“The problem of the deficit is known, and a solution is being found, but not by harming pensioners. Ben Or agreed and said he wouldn’t promote the cuts, but merely wanted to raise a flag.”
Meanwhile, around 80 seniors protested in Tel Aviv against the announcement by the pension schemes of their intention to make the cuts.
(Photo: Amir Alon)
Chairman of the Pensioners’ Histadrut, Shmulik Mizrahi, said during the protest: “The government is adding a sin to a crime. The ministers linked their salaries to the average wage and raised for themselves their monthly salaries by NIS 5,000, but for the elderly they refuse to do that.”
Also in attendance at the protest were Zionist Union MKs Itzik Shmuli and Nachman Shai. “In the state treasury there is a surplus of NIS 20 billion but the Finance Ministry wants to turn you into its little cashier,” Shmuli said. “What is happening in the State of Israel is simply a disgrace. It is simply a spit in the face of the pensioners. We are determined to struggle against this. We won’t allow anyone to touch your pensions.”
(Photo: Amit Alon)
Slamming what he described as a moral failure by Israel and the Finance Ministry, Ephraim Koren, manager of the Pensioners’ Histadrut, lamented the low monthly pensions.
“The average pension in Israel for men is lower than NIS 6,000 and for women less than NIS 5,000,” he said in an interview with Ynet. “It’s a disgrace to the people of Israel. Instead of letting people age with dignity, to feel like they are builders of this land, they are harming them, of all time when Israel celebrates its 70th birthday.”
