Table of Contents Opening Remarks...........................................................................................................3 Foreword ........................................................................................................................5 Selected Graphs .........................................................................................................9 Chapter 1 Social Policy and Trends in National Insurance Development 1. National Insurance – Historical Overview and Future Challenges: Introduction ........................................................................................................31 2. Benefit Payments in 2014 and a Historical Overview .........................................31 3. National Insurance Revenues in 2014 and a Historical Overview .......................37 4. National Insurance – A Social Insurer or Government Agent? ...........................39 5. Types of Benefits According to Social Security Goals .........................................42 6. Future Challenges of the National Insurance Institute ........................................56 7. Scope of Payments ...............................................................................................58 8. Benefit Levels ......................................................................................................61 9. Recipients of Benefits ..........................................................................................64 10. Collection of Insurance Contributions from the Public and Sources of Benefit Funding ..........................................................................67 Chapter 2 Welfare, Poverty and Social Gaps 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................75 2. An International Comparison of the Israeli Social Situation ..............................75 3. Main findings on poverty and inequality in 2013 ................................................81 4. Measuring poverty ...............................................................................................96 Chapter 3 Benefits: Activities and Trends 1. Income Support .................................................................................................107 2. Old-age and Survivor Insurance ........................................................................129 3. Long-term Care Insurance ................................................................................145 4. Children Insurance ............................................................................................167 5. Maternity Insurance ..........................................................................................173 6. General Disability Allowance ............................................................................181 7. Work-Injury Insurance ......................................................................................217 8. Victims of Terror ...............................................................................................239 9. Vocational Rehabilitation ..................................................................................249 10. Unemployment Benefits ....................................................................................261 11. Insurance of Employee Rights in Bankruptcy and Corporate Liquidation .......279 12. Reserve Service Benefits ....................................................................................285 Chapter 4 Collection: Activities and Trends 1. General ..............................................................................................................313 2. Legislative Changes ...........................................................................................313 3. Collection of National Insurance Contributions ...............................................314 4. Collection for the Health System ......................................................................319 5. Distribution of the Burden of Payment of National Insurance Contributions and Health Insurance Contributions .........................................328 6. Special Populations Defined as Salaried Employees ..........................................319 Chapter 5 Funds of the National Insurance Institute 1. National Insurance Institute Funds for the Community ...................................333 2. The Research Fund and the Research Room .....................................................349 Appendix Insurance Branch Tables .............................................................................................353 Measurement of Poverty and Data Sources ................................................................389 Poverty and Inequality Tables .....................................................................................397 List of Authors .......................................................................................................425 List of Boxes 1. Mapping Poverty in Jerusalem ............................................................................86 2. Nutritional Security in the Elderly - Results of Surveys in 2011 and 2012 .........94 3. Work Productivity and Average Pay in relation to Work Productivity – International Comparison .................................................................................101 4. International Comparison of Maintenance Payments: Terms of Eligibility, Period of Payment, and Amount .......................................................................125 5. Advisory Service for the Elderly ........................................................................142 6. Examinations for Long-Term Care Benefit Performed by Geriatric Specialist Physicians – The Experimental Program for Persons Aged 80-89 ....149 7. Assessment of Dependency for Long-Term Care Benefits – Different Examination Channels ......................................................................................154 8. Testing Eligibility for the Study Grant – 2014 Survey ......................................172 9. Extension of Maternity Leave: Has it Impacted Women’s Return to Work? ....178 10. Changing Eligibility Tests for Special Services Allowance ................................193 11. Adults with Autism – Integration into Society and Work, 2003-2014 ..............202 12. Requests for Income Tax Exemption .................................................................229 13. Unemployed Insurance for the Self-Employed .................................................262 14. Jobseekers at the Israeli Employment Service Exercising Rights to Unemployment Benefits, 2013 ..........................................................................266 15. Do recipients of unemployment insurance claim the benefit more than once? ......273 16. Participation of the Finance Ministry in National Insurance Collection in the Last Decade ............................................................................................295 17. Neglect among Children ...................................................................................322 Opening Remarks In 2014 the National Insurance Institute celebrated 60 years of existence. This is a good time to look back and assess the situation of social security until now, and also to examine the NII’s readiness for the challenges faced by insured persons and policy makers. Chapter 1 discusses the main goals of social security and the link between them and benefit clusters, and presents a program to achieve financial sustainability and reinforce the link between NII subsistence benefits and a decent standard of living. In 2014, in the framework of the ‘War on Poverty’ Committee, the Research & Planning Department presented various options for a decent living standard, but today there is no consensus on such a minimum. Chapter 2 describes the situation of poverty and social gaps in Israel, with the emphasis on a comparison with OECD countries. It presents some other indices of poverty, based on both the expenditure aspect and the income aspect of families, and a comparison between Israel and the OECD countries in terms of expenditure in cash and in kind on welfare for the elderly and the working age population. Chapter 3 presents the core of National Insurance activity, payment of benefits, and specifies the main developments in this area: benefit levels, payments and number of recipients. Chapter 4 deals with developments in the NII’s collection system, and also presents the most important legislative changes. Chapter 5 reviews the activity of the NII’s five funds for the development of various aspects concerning the community (such as the development of services for the disabled, promotion of nursing programs, special enterprises, services for at-risk children and youth, and prevention of work accidents) as well as of the Research Fund and the Research Room which are available to external researchers in order to promote empirical research in Israel. As always, this report also includes special sections (‘boxes’) on a range of topics: for example a joint project of the National Insurance and Jerusalem Municipality to map poverty in the capital; an international comparison of maintenance payments; the activity of the Advisory Service for the Elderly; the effect of lengthening maternity leave on mothers returning to work; changes in tests of eligibility for the Special Services Allowance; the issue of unemployment insurance for the self- employed; a historical analysis of the Treasury’s