By RUTH EGLASH
Concerns about their benefits and social rights were the main reason more than 32,000 elderly citizens contacted the Pensioners Affairs Ministry's new help-line (*8840) during its first month of operation in August, the ministry reported.
Two hundred of the calls came from English-speaking pensioners.
While only about a third of the requests were immediately addressed, Pensioners Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan welcomed the establishment of a call center that "allows the elderly to receive essential information and help in real time by dialing just one direct number."
According to the ministry, out of the 32,590 calls received, more than half were from Russian-speaking immigrants and roughly 100 from native Israelis, despite a recent media campaign to raise awareness of the new line.
Those calls that could not be given immediate answers are being dealt with now, a ministry spokeswoman said.
The majority of the calls involved people asking for information about their rights as senior citizens or their financial benefits, including details or changes to their state pensions. Holocaust survivors and their families accounted for some 13,490 of the calls for information on rights and benefits.
Regarding elder abuse, a growing phenomenon in Israel in recent years, the ministry said that a hot line to report abuse had been established in April and that in its initial months thousands of reports of abuse and neglect of elderly people were received.
Since calls have been transferred to the new number, that figure has dropped significantly to fewer than 100, with 34 of the reports having already been dealt with.
On Wednesday, pensioners' rights groups met in Tel Aviv to protest possible cutbacks by the Treasury to the basket of benefits afforded to senior citizens.
The meeting highlighted possible plans for the 2009 state budget to: reduce by half welfare assistance (essentially caregivers); limit the number of months a pensioner can travel abroad before losing his benefits; and cutbacks on city tax (arnona) reductions, travel subsidies and coverage for lengthy hospital stays.
Those present also discussed suggested cuts to the National Insurance Institute's budget.
"The biggest threat are the cutbacks slated for the National Insurance Institute, which will leave us all in danger," said Natan Levon, director of pensioner's rights group Ken Lazaken, which convened the conference.
Dr. Israel Doron of the University of Haifa's Department of Gerontology and School of Social work and an activist in the Association of Law in the Service of the Elderly said, "The strategy of the Treasury is to grind down the social infrastructure and the security of the elderly residents of Israel."
Dr. Avi Bitzur, director-general of the Pensioners Affairs Ministry, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday he was optimistic that Eitan had succeeded in persuading the Finance Ministry to reinstate most of the slated cuts, including benefits for widows, and subsidies for medication and arnona.
"While there is no doubt that the situation for the elderly could be a lot better," he said, "I believe that we have had some successes this year."
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