The Guide to Social Security in Corona

The corona crisis has recognized many of the citizens of Israel not only a deadly and cruel epidemic, but also new situations. Sitting in a quarantine at home three times – it was unfamiliar to anyone, not even in wars and severe weather damage. Not to meet the loved ones closest to us for many months – this is also a foreign phenomenon to Israelis, who are considered warm and family people.

But even institutions, many of which had no prior acquaintance, suddenly became close to every person in the wake of the crisis. One of these is without a doubt the National Insurance Institute, which became known to all citizens of the country, among other things, thanks to the distribution of grants to every citizen. Unfortunately, more than a million citizens first became acquainted with this institution due to their unpaid vacations and even their dismissal. As is well known, the National Insurance pays the unemployment benefits.

The head of the institution, which has suddenly become so popular and popular, and sometimes even less popular, is Meir Spiegler, who has become one of the busiest people in the country due to the crisis. He is also the one who absorbs, often unjustly, the resentment of citizens who think that they have not received the assistance they are entitled to.

In special remarks he makes to this supplement, Spiegler refers to the tasks of Social Security and his many activities in his history during the Corona crisis: .

Meir said at the time: “We are laying the cornerstone for building a society in which there will be no promiscuous orphan and no old man weeping for his old age. It is not at the mercy of the generous that the weak will depend, because as citizens they will get what they deserve.” In the State of Israel “, the words of the person who later became the Prime Minister of Israel.

Spiegler: “From my point of view and worldview as the director general of Social Security, public service is a right and not a task, a refinement and not a burden, a mission in the knowledge of those that one day we will replace them, as a society is likened to a multi-vertebrate chain. in her”.

The CEO explains, “In the Corona crisis, without any prior notice, about a million workers lost their source of livelihood. The role of Social Security was more than ever, to function as a stable backbone, helping the unemployed to ‘float above the water’. The Social Security Act did not take into account that we would be required to deal with the products of a prolonged crisis on a global scale. “The narrow and limited room for maneuver in adjusting benefits to the needs of the time has caused a fatal blow to the ability of the country’s citizens to overcome the economic and mental difficulties created as a result of the fight against the virus.”

Some argue that the decision to grant unemployment benefits for a year has encouraged many unemployed people not to look for work.

“The allegations of being a bad model deny any factual basis. They are now coming out of the mouths of those factors whose livelihoods have not been harmed even for a moment and have never experienced the need to deal with scarcity, which necessitates nothing. The recently published poverty report indicates thousands of unemployment benefits. Save countless people from diving below the poverty line. “

The CEO also wishes to point out that “during the crisis, we fought for the approval of grants, easing of the conditions for receiving unemployment benefits, eligibility periods to prevent uncertainty and additional social rights.”

Spiegler emphasizes to us that “through the National Insurance databases, we have cooperated with all the systems and institutional bodies for the benefit of improving the service and response provided to residents. .

“The crisis is still here,” Spiegler recalls, “but even after the virus is removed from our districts, it will take us another two years to complete professional treatment, including claims for unemployment benefits, adjustment grants and alimony. My heart’s desire: “Their rights automatically, without effort and dealing with the ills of bureaucracy, because they deserve them by right and not by grace.”

What does Social Security give to the self-employed?

These days the corona is still making names. We turned to CPA Orna Tzach-Gellert, a member of the Central Committee and chair of the CPA’s liaison committee with the National Insurance Institute and a representative of the Bureau in the Knesset on this issue, and to CPA Galit Yehezkeli-Golan, Chairman of the Haifa and North Region and a member of the Central Committee At the Institute of Certified Public Accountants, in order to make it clear to the public that it is quite confused by everything that is happening around the Corona crisis, what actually happens to the small business and the family unit in its dealings with the National Insurance Institute during the plague:

Recognition of Corona disease as a work accident or entitlement to a general disability pension: Anyone who fell ill in Corona and filed a claim with the National Insurance Institute may receive payments from the institution due to the results of the illness.

Injury at work: In order for Social Security to recognize an employee, employee or self-employed person as injured in a work accident, he must prove that he contracted the disease following exposure to a verified patient at work and not from other factors, such as family, friends and the like.

General disability: A person who has a disability left from the corona, which affects his ability to get drunk, and whose income has been impaired due to the disease, will check eligibility for a general disability benefit from the National Insurance Institute.

Is every self-employed person injured at work insured with the National Insurance Institute?

Only a self-employed person who meets the definition of “self-employed person” is insured with the National Insurance Institute in the event of an injury at work or maternity pay. The rules are: the self-employed person engages in his occupation for 20 hours a week on average or more, or his average annual income – after deducting expenses, according to income in the assessment – exceeds NIS 63,000 per year, or the hours of employment are 12 hours on average a week or more, and the average annual income, after Deduction of expenses, exceeds NIS 19,000 per year. Yes, it’s quite complicated.

Importance of payment for a self-employed person during pregnancy: In order for a self-employed person who meets the definition to be insured for pensions, maternity and paternity benefits and for a maternity / paternity benefit, she must pay all insurance premiums before the birth or maternity leave.

The basis for the self-employed person’s injury allowance is in most cases based on the income according to which he paid advances:

Social Security advances must always be updated according to the expected income of the self-employed, because an injury to long-term work or disability following the injury blocks the possibility of repairing the basis for the benefit, except in exceptional cases.

Suppose that in April 2021 the self-employed person who meets the definition will develop the corona virus from a verified customer who was near him, will be recognized as a work-related injury at the National Insurance Institute, and will remain disabled from the virus. The Social Security will calculate the injury allowance and disability benefit from work according to the income according to which the self-employed person paid insurance premium advances from January to March 2021. In such a case even if the income in the 2021 assessment is lower or higher – the Social Security will not correct the benefit.

Is it possible to change insurance premium advances during the year?

Advances of social security contributions are determined by the National Insurance Institute once a year, at the beginning of the tax year. The self-employed may increase or decrease them once every quarter according to his or her expected income.

Social Security does not change the basis for calculating the advance of the self-employed after an income tax assessment is received during the year. The change will usually only be reflected at the beginning of the next tax year.

Each time the Social Security receives a new assessment from the income tax, it calculates the differences between the income according to which it calculated the advances and the income in the assessment. The higher the income in the assessment – the Social Security will demand the differences. The lower the income in the assessment – the Social Security will return the insurance premium to the self-employed.

The self-employed person received a demand from the National Insurance Institute for advances in 2021 according to the income in the 2019 assessment, and he cannot expect the annual income in 2021. Should he reduce advances?

If he does not reduce the advances, and the annual income of 2021 will be low, and the tax will not be blocked due to an injury at work – the self-employed will receive the insurance premium differences back, index-linked.

How do corona grants affect Social Security?

The social assistance grants received by the self-employed and the controlling shareholders are subject to income tax, but are not considered income for the purposes of the National Insurance Law and the State Health Insurance Law. They are exempt from paying Social Security contributions and health tax. The grants for fixed expenses are considered as income for income tax purposes and also for the purposes of Social Security.

What are the ways to pay Social Security debts?

The debt can be paid by mail with a payment voucher or by credit card or payment arrangement. Care must be taken to pay the current advances on time, because after arrears in two installments the arrangement is canceled.

Amendment of a law due to the corona in calculating the maternity and paternity allowance of a self-employed person and self-employed from January to June 2021:

Self-employed people receive maternity and paternity benefits, including adoptive parents, surrogate parents and parents in foster families, according to the income according to which they pay advances. After the assessment reaches that year, an account is made of the obligation or credit. The National Insurance Institute calculates the basis for the maternity allowance according to the higher of the income in the quarter before termination of employment or in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.

The maternity and self-employment allowance of a self-employed person, whose income was affected by the corona, will be calculated in births from January to June 2021 according to the income in the quarter preceding the birth in 2021, or in the corresponding period of 2020 or in the corresponding period of 2019, whichever is higher.

Employers’ indemnification due to isolation days paid to employees

The National Insurance Institute will reimburse an employer who paid an employee an isolation fee – including a stay in solitary confinement due to the entry of his child up to the age of 16 into solitary confinement – as of February 1, 2121, including for a retroactive period. The indemnity period is from 1.10.2020 to 30.3.2021, according to information available in the Ministry of Health and reported in real time. 