Since the outbreak of the Corona crisis, the Social Security has illegally paid about a billion shekels in unemployment benefits to hundreds of thousands of citizens who were not entitled to it. Social Security CEO Meir Spiegler in media interviews tried to impose responsibility on the employment service, arguing that Social Security payments are based solely on employment service reports.
However, these words are far from the truth, because the employment test operated by the employment service is not sufficient to determine entitlement to unemployment benefits, neither to the actual entitlement, nor to its scope nor to its duration. The National Insurance Institute, as the legal body of trust for providing a social safety net for Israeli citizens in times of private and national crisis, has the exclusive authority to determine the conditions, scope and duration of entitlement to any social benefit, including that of unemployment benefits. The role of the employment service is to help job seekers return to the work cycle and to help employees who are interested in it improve their skills and professional skills.
As for unemployment benefits, the role of the employment service comes down to reporting to the National Insurance Institute on those who report themselves as job seekers and therefore claiming unemployment benefits or income support. However, as stated, whoever examines this report and decides whether their claim will be accepted and in what manner and scope is the Social Security alone.
Furthermore, even at the beginning of the crisis, Spiegler made it clear that in view of the large number of unemployment plaintiffs and the proximity to the Social Security Seder night, he would pay all plaintiffs advances of NIS 1.6 billion, and later on it became clear that the plaintiff was not entitled to unemployment benefits. Not only was Social Security aware of the possibility of overpayments in advance but it was prepared for it and even updated the public.
The claim that the National Insurance Institute automatically pays unemployment benefits only based on employment service reports is a blatant lie, unless it chooses to do so and knowingly puts itself into high overpayments, as it did.
In response, he said Employment Service CEO Rami Graur: “Given the default and its dimensions, I expect Meir Spiegler to show leadership and take responsibility for the overpayments he made. He failed the test of the act and paid a billion shekels illegally.
It is not too late to correct the mistake, with the required sensitivity the public will understand this, especially since Spiegler announced it in advance. The attempt to roll over the responsibility for the employment service is shameful and sinful to the truth, it does not respect Spiegler and it does not deserve the public sector. The Employment Service opposed all the way to the automatic unemployment benefit policy until June 2021 pushed by Spiegler and others, understanding its damage to job seekers and the economy alike, and instead proposed the German model at the outset of the crisis. We are working tirelessly to return the jobseekers to the labor force, as we have done throughout the crisis and so we will continue to do – this is our responsibility and not otherwise. “