The Knesset's Labor and Welfare Committee has approved a special agreement to provide an additional one-time grant from the National Insurance Institute to those families evacuated from their homes due to the war with Hamas.
The grant provides 200 NIS per adult and 100 NIS per child, per day, to the evacuees who returned home after staying in hotels. The funds were supposed to have been transferred to the evacuees beginning January 1, 2024, but no funds were transferred.
In total, the grants provide each adult with approximately 15,000 NIS, a couple with about 30,000 NIS, and each child with nearly 8,000 NIS.
Following the delay in implementation of the grant, the Committee met to approve a special agreement with the National Insurance Institute and allow the funds to be transferred.
Haredi MK Yisrael Eichler (United Torah Judaism), who chairs the Committee, requested that the agreement be expedited, so as to allow the evacuees to receive the money prior to the holiday of Pesach (Passover).
The government decision would have applied to only the first seven children in a family. However, Eichler fought and stood his ground, insisting that he would not approve the agreement unless the grants were expanded to include additional children.
"We must not discriminate between children," he stressed. "Every child deserves to receive a grant, even if there are ten or more children in his family."
Following Eichler's protests, the section of the bill which limited the number of children eligible was removed, and evacuees who have more than seven children will now receive a grant for the additional children as well.