Bureaucracy keeps grants from lone soldiers
Absorption Ministry fails to pay grants to soldiers who left everything behind to volunteer to IDF. One soldier says, 'When my friends go out to eat, I never join'. Ministry vows to rectify situation
Many youths leave their families abroad and come to Israel to make their contribution to the State and enlist to the Israel Defense Forces, but it seems they also fall victim to bureaucracy. As a result, hundreds of lone soldiers have not been receiving their aid from the State for the past six months.
David, a lone soldier who serves in a combat unit, told Ynet he has to think twice before spending any money. He has been waiting for the grant he was meant to receive from the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption for five months now.
"When my friends go out to eat, I never join them. I live on a kibbutz, there I only eat the dining room food. The refrigerator in my room is empty. Even when I am at the unit my economic situation burdens me.
"The Ministry of Immigration and Absorption helped me when they gave me the Absorption Basket, but I expected them to continue supporting me. I didn't have to come here and enlist, but I really wanted to. Because of the situation I am living frugally."
MK Yoel Hasson, head of the lobby for encouraging immigration from the West, contacted the ministry in the matter. "The fact that bureaucracy is keeping such a large number of lone soldiers from receiving the payments they are eligible to is a very serious matter," he said.
"We must remember that for the lone soldiers, who face many difficulties in the military and in their absorption in Israel, this is significant money that they use to get by on. It saddens me that only the intervention of the State Control Committee, headed by myself, and the decision to hold a session on the matter next week, have driven the ministry to take action. If I do not get a commitment in writing that the payments will be transferred immediately, the committee will not hesitate to use its authority."
The Ministry of Immigration and Absorption said in response: "We deal with some 3,500 lone soldiers, who receive a large and comprehensive basket of services as well as a monthly grant of NIS 352 (roughly $91). In recent months, due to bureaucratic complications pertaining to the transfer of funds, and problems with determining eligibility for some of the soldiers, a situation has been created in which hundreds of lone soldiers did not receive their monthly grant.
"On June 1 the monthly grant will be transferred to all the lone soldiers, without exception. In addition, those soldiers who did not receive their grant will receive an enlarged grant, and will receive the remainder of the debt that has accumulated over a number of months. We apologize for the distress that was created and will do everything in our power to ensure that such cases are not repeated in the future."
