Long-term care benefit (גמלת סיעוד) from the National Insurance Institute (ביטוח לאומי)

Who can get it

Someone who has reached retirement age, lives at home (not in an institution), and needs another person's help with bathing, dressing, eating, moving around, or controlling bodily needs. Also someone who needs close supervision because of a medical or cognitive condition. There is also an income test. Someone whose income is above the threshold gets half the benefit.

How to submit a claim

You fill in a claim form for the long-term care benefit, online or on paper, and send it with the documents. The National Insurance Institute sends an assessor to your home. You can get help by phone at *9696 or 02-6709857.

• ☐Claim form for the long-term care benefit (if you live in an institution: the management fills in the part meant for it)
• ☐Recent medical documents: a summary of diagnoses, treatments, and medicines, or a hospital discharge summary from the last 3 months
• ☐Proof of income for you and your spouse for 3 of the last 4 months
• ☐A guardianship order, if the person submitting is a guardian
• ☐A blind person's certificate, for someone who is blind

What the assessor checks

An assessor from the National Insurance Institute comes to the home and checks what a person can do alone. They check bathing, dressing, eating, moving around the home, and handling bodily needs. They also check whether supervision is needed because of difficulty with memory or understanding. The result is a dependence score, and the level is set according to it. Tip: be present at the assessment. Describe what a normal day looks like, including the hard days. Do not make a good impression at the cost of the truth. If your parent says “I manage,” add what really happens.

• ☐Prepare a list of activities your parent cannot do alone
• ☐Prepare the medicines and the medical documents
• ☐Have a family member who knows daily life be present

The six levels and the care hours

There are 6 levels. These are the care hours per week, according to the National Insurance Institute website (in brackets: for someone who employs a foreign worker): - Level 1: 5.5 hours - Level 2: 10 hours - Level 3: 17 hours (14) - Level 4: 21 hours (18) - Level 5: 26 hours (22) - Level 6: 30 hours (26) The website also lists the dependence scores for each level, for example level 1 is 2.5 to 3 points and level 6 is 9.5 to 10.5.

Money or services

You can choose: care hours at home, other services (a day center, an emergency button, absorbent products, laundry), money, or a mix. At every level you can convert only part of the hours to money, and for some options a social worker's approval is needed. Someone who employs a foreign worker can choose to receive the whole benefit in money. You can see the current amounts on the page for each level on the National Insurance Institute website. They change every year.

What happens after the decision

A social worker from the National Insurance Institute contacts you and builds a personal care plan. If you do not agree with the level, you can ask for a new assessment or appeal. Details about appeals are in the decision itself. If the condition gets worse, you can submit a new request with medical documents.