(As stated by the National Insurance Institute of Israel on their website)
An Israeli resident who is at least 18 years old, but has not yet reached retirement age, and is disabled due to a physical, intellectual or mental impairment resulting from an illness, accident or birth defect, is entitled to disability benefits.
Age and residency: You are an Israeli resident, you are between the ages of 18 and retirement age.
A minor, between the ages of 16 and 18 may be entitled to the pension if he or she was a "working minor" immediately before sustaining his/her earning incapacity.
Income from work: You either do not work or your income as a salaried employee or self-employed person is under 60% of the average wage, i.e. NIS 6,331 (as of Jan 01, 2020).
Please note: A married woman without an occupation shall be examined as a housewife, if she did not work for 12 consecutive months or 24 non-consecutive months within the 48 months that preceded the day of submission of her claim for a disability pension or termination of her work - if termination of work occurred after submission of the claim.
Medical disability (including qualifying mental health disabilities): You were determined, by a physician from the National Insurance Institute of Israel (NII), a medical disability degree of at least 60%, (or at least 40%, if you have several medical impairments and a medical disability of at least 25% was determined for a single one of them). To view a list of qualifying disabilities, see the following PDF from Bituach Leumi: https://www.btl.gov.il/Laws1/02_0001_150700.pdf - Mental health information begins on part four of the document, clause 106.
Incapacity degree: It has been established that, due to your disability, you cannot work or your capacity to earn a living has been diminished by at least 50%, and a degree of earning incapacity of 60%, 65%, 74% or 100% has been determined for you.
A married woman who did not work for a long while shall be examined under a different track for purposes of receiving a disability pension for a housewife.
Examination under the housewife track is performed if she did not work for 12 consecutive months or 24 non-consecutive months within the 48 months that preceded the day of submission of her claim for a disability pension or termination of her work - if termination of work occurred after submission of the claim.
A claim for a general disability pension may be submitted from age 18, and up to 12 months past retirement age.
You can now fill out your claim form and send all necessary documents by means of a service representative, over the telephone at *3928.
The representative will fill out and submit the claim for you over the phone and help you with the submission of documents.
Ways to submit documents
The claim and above mentioned documents may be sent by one of the following ways:
After submitting the claim, you will be summoned, if necessary, to an examination by the Medical Board, and in case you have severe disabilities, your claim will follow the "fast track" handling process.
Important: You are entitled to receive, free of charge, advice and preparation to Medical Boards by "Helping Hands" centers. To schedule an appointment, dial *2496
"Helping Hand” centers' services involve:
If you or your family do not have any income at all, you should check your eligibility for income support until you start receiving a disability pension.
A disabled person who stays in an inpatient institution receives everything he needs from the institution in which he is hospitalized. Therefore, a person entitled to a disability pension who is hospitalized in an institution that is a public body (such as Mental Health Centers and institutions acknowledged by the Ministry of Social Affairs), and more than half of his personal expenses are covered by the institution in which he is hospitalized, his pension will be divided between the entitled and the public institution.
The amount of pension share varies according to the pension entitlement of the disabled, increment for a spouse and children, and the type of hospitalization. The public institution is responsible for submitting a request for pension share to the National Insurance Institute.
1. The claims officer at the local National Insurance Institute of Israel (NII) branch examines the claim
The claims officer checks the following:
Important: attachment of all the required documents to the claims form will shorten the process of the handling of the claim.
2. A National Insurance Institute's doctor examines the claim
The NII's doctor checks the following:
After the NII has gathered all the required documents, you will receive a notification to appear before a medical board (it is possible that you will not have to appear in person).
Please note: the medical board is composed of one doctor who specializes in a certain area. Therefore, if you have additional impairments, you may be summoned to a number of boards.
3. Appearing before a medical board
In the medical board, the doctor:
Please note: the members of the medical board may pause the evaluation of your claim and request additional medical examinations or documents if needed. The board doctor is not authorized to decide on the medical treatment that you require, but rather to determine your degree of medical disability only.
The claim returns to the claims officer in the Disability Department, who then:
After all the examinations, the decision on your claim will be sent to you by mail, together with the report of the medical board.
After receiving a ruling on your claim, if you think the decision is not fair, you may appeal it: http://bit.ly/nii_appeal
The information above was compiled by Get Help Israel.