Disabled immigrants to receive rent benefits

Starting on Monday, disabled olim will receive financial aid from the government in order to pay rent.

The cabinet decision was made as part of the housing portion of the recommendations of the Trajtenberg Report, which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered to examine the nation’s socioeconomic problems after the summer 2011 housing protests.

The cabinet approved the report in fall 2011.

The immigrants concerned started receiving the rent benefits on Monday owed to them retroactively since May 2012.

Wheelchair-bound immigrants living in Israel are entitled to NIS 3,000 a month for rent, a significant raise compared to before the cabinet decision, when they received between NIS 800 and NIS 1,500 for the same purpose, according to the Immigrant Absorption Ministry.

For olim with other disabilities, the financial rental assistance was doubled from NIS 600 to NIS 1,200 a month. The same applies to immigrant families headed by a single parent, according to the ministry.

Immigrant families on the waiting list for public housing can also claim, in the meantime, a NIS 1,250 participation from the ministry in paying rent for their current living arrangement.

“The implementation of the government’s decision to increase rent aid is critical to the lives of dozens of disabled immigrants in Israel,” Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver said.

“The Ministry of Immigrant Absorption works day and night to make sure that every immigrant has a proper home,” she said.

The olim are expected to receive all of the aid owed to them since last spring by the end of this month.