The Finance Ministry refuses to send delegates to an inter-ministry committee meant to resolved the crisis over disabled allowances, Maariv reported on July 23.
Head of Bituah Leumi Meir Shpigler complained to head of Ministry of Labor Minister Haim Katz placing the blame at the doorstep of the Ministry of Finance.
Shpigler argued that without a delegate who can connect the committee to the budget department of the Ministry of Finance the sessions can at best be used to brainstorm among the members so that they can present ideas at a future time when the Finance Ministry actually sends someone.
“Despite all verbal and written requests,” he wrote, “for 9 months the budget department did not find it vital to seek the approval of the Ministry of Finance to appoint the members of the committee which oversees the distribution of fund allocated for the reform of pensions for the disabled.”
The current Minister of Finance is Moshe Kahlon, in an official response to Maariv his office said the matter never reached them and will be resolved when it will.
The demand to increase allowances for the disabled to match minimum wage lead to massive protests in 2018 in which various activist groups blocked roads, causing wide-scale traffic disruptions.
The inter-ministry committee was created for the expressed purpose of resolving the issue.