By Hadas Tayeb | Resource Development Coordinator
Joseph Finally Gets his Severance Pay
Joseph, a 68-year-old retiree, turned to YEDID's Mobile Center while it was stationed in Upper Nazareth. Joseph was certain that he was owed NIS 8,600 in severance pay; however, when he contacted his former employer, Joseph was told that the time for demanding severance pay had lapsed, and that there was nothing the employer could do to help Joseph. Distraught, Joseph began to call different insurance companies, to see if his severance pay was being held there. Each insurance company that Joseph called maintained that they had never heard of Joseph, and that they didn't have his money.
By the time Joseph reached YEDID, he was hopeless. The only documentation he had regarding the severance pay was dated 2002, from a certain insurance company that no longer existed. Mobile Center Director Irena Luria made a few phone calls, and discovered where the accounts of the insurance company that had issued Joseph's document had been moved to. Irena then contacted the insurance company, and discovered that not only did they have Joseph's severance pay, but that it had been collecting interest since 2002 and that it was now worth NIS 22,000. A YEDID volunteer helped Joseph fill out the forms to withdraw the money, and Joseph finally received the money that was rightfully his.
Mobile Center Goals
The goal of YEDID's Mobile Citizen Rights and Health Center is to empower and strengthen residents like Joseph living in Israel's socioeconomic and geographic peripheries in the areas of health and social rights. The Center's objectives are to help clients navigate the national health system; to provide preventative medical services; and to supply information about legal rights and social benefits in the area of health care and other areas (such as housing and National Insurance, to name just two).
Mobile Center in Numbers
From the beginning of May 2015 through the end of September 2015, the Mobile Center provided 234 clients with rights counseling. The most prevalent subjects for which people turned to the center for non-health related issues during this period were matters related to problems in accessing benefits and rights from the National Insurance Institute (Social Security) (29%), debt and repossessions (25%), and issues concerning public housing and mortgages (23%),. Clients served included immigrants and veteran Israelis, Holocaust survivors, Arabs and Jews. 62% of those who turned to us during this reporting period were women.
Plans for the Future
The Mobile Center's plans for the coming months are to increase the number of Health Days we run each month, to recruit more volunteers with specific skills such as fluency in Arabic and Russian, and professional experience in relevant fields.
It's all thanks to YOU
On behalf of YEDID's staff, volunteers, and clients, I thank our supporters for their partnership. The immediate and essential assistance that the center provides to individuals in peripheral towns across the country could never happen without your help. Thank you so much!
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