The cabinet approved, Sunday, an initiative by Labor and Welfare Minister Haim Katz to give senior citizens living on their own a nursing allowance from age 86.
The Yahad (together) program will include a number of regular weekly visits at a senior's home, as needed, with the goal of easing the senior's sense of isolation and to facilitate the monitoring of conditions in his or her residence and the basic quality of life. The ministry will work for recipients of income support to integrate into the program as cargegivers. The cost of the program is 200 million shekels a year.