Israeli Unemployment Benefits Navigator

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Problem

Every year tens of thousands of Israelis lose their job or are placed on unpaid leave (חל"ת) and leave avtala money on the table. Bituach Leumi publishes the progressive formula, the dependant test, the exclusion list and the payment deductions on five separate pages. Resigning without knowing about the 90-day wait, being a controlling shareholder and never being told that alone disqualifies you, or missing that a 22-year-old in regular service still counts as a dependant, all cost real shekels. This skill answers "Am I eligible? How much will I get? What do I do first?" in one pass, with a checklist the user can execute the same day.

All ₪ amounts are 2026 figures (effective 01.01.2026), linked to inflation and re-linked each January. Cross-check btl.gov.il/benefits/Unemployment/Pages/hisuv.aspx before quoting a number.

Instructions

Step 1: Collect User Inputs

Step 2: Check Eligibility (tkufat akhshara)

Run the gates in order. Stop at the first failure and name the rule that blocks them.

One day of salaried work makes a full qualifying month. Also counting: IDF service (up to 6 months), national service (up to 6, on conditions), miluim, the first 2 employer-insured chal"t months, paid vacation and holiday days (but NOT pidyon chufsha paid on severance), mourning days even if unpaid, sick leave, dmei pgia / dmei leda / shmirat herayon, and pay for failure to give notice (which blocks benefit for its period AND counts toward akhshara). Osek months do NOT. The 18-month window itself extends for approved training, illness with no sick pay, and maternity leave, each with a cap: see references/eligibility-rules.md.

Self-employed to salaried trap. Someone closes their osek, works as a shakhir 7 to 10 months, is fired, and is denied on under 12 months. Count only salaried months; one more can flip eligibility.

Step 3: Check Waiting Period (reason for termination)

What "suitable" means (s. 165): job type matches the last 3 years or the claimant's training, the wage is at least the benefit otherwise due, and it needs no move of home (a 60 km test). The first two limbs relax by age; timings in references/eligibility-rules.md.

Severance interaction. Legal pitzuim do NOT delay or reduce avtala. What postpones it is vacation pay and pay in lieu of notice (up to one month). Ask how each was labelled on the payslip.

Justified-cause resignation grounds (skip the 90-day wait). The eight causes BL itself publishes; attach evidence for whichever applies. (1) Har'a muchashit in the conditions of employment, or circumstances making carrying on impossible. (2) Health, the claimant's or a family member's (spouse, parent, child, grandchild, brother, sister). (3) A change of home or workplace where the distance exceeds 60 km, or 40 km for a mother of a child under 7. (4) Sexual harassment at work. (5) A te'udat miktzoa holder working outside their trade who resigns to work in it. (6) Staying in a domestic-violence shelter. (7) Resignation from a new job held up to 6 months where no earlier entitlement was realised. (8) Resignation from a second job, where two jobs of similar scope were held, one left with justification, and the second continued up to 3 months. A pay cut is argued under limb 1; BL publishes no percentage test, so do not quote one.

Step 4: Calculate Maximum Benefit Days

Use the age + dependents table. A tlui is a statutory test, not a judgement call. A husband counts at 70+, or 50+ with income no higher than 57% of the average wage, ₪7,848 a month (from 01.01.2026). A wife counts only if all three hold: married a year or bore his child; 45+ or has his child with her; income no higher than ₪7,848. A child counts if under 18; under 20 finishing secondary school or a bagrut, or learning-disabled in a BL-recognised framework; under 20 as an IDF pre-military shocher; under 21 volunteering for a public purpose up to 12 months with service deferred; or under 24 in regular IDF service, national service, or atuda with service deferred. Stepchildren, adopted children and a wholly-maintained grandchild count; a married minor does not. The under-24 limbs are the ones agents drop, and dropping one can cost a 30-year-old 38 days. Full text in references/benefit-calculation-tables.md.

Days must be used within 12 months of the 1st of the registration month; the women's track uses 18.

Discharged soldiers and national-service completers. Unemployment starting in the first year after release is capped at 70 days, with a statutory daily minimum of ₪144.62. Up to 6 months of regular service count toward akhshara. A national or civil service dischargee gets this track only after 24 months, or as a woman who served 6+ months and married within 30 days of stopping; shorter service means ordinary rules.

Vocational-training floor. A trainee with fewer than 12 years of schooling whose maximum is under 138 days is paid for up to 138 days. Do not flatten a low-schooling dischargee to 70.

Repeat claimant (2+ claims in 4 years). Under 40: all claims capped at 180% of the maximum, and once 100% of days are used the daily maximum drops to ₪468.15. 40 and over: no cap on the amount, but days paid in the rolling preceding 11 months are netted off monthly. Examples: references/benefit-calculation-tables.md.

Step 5: Calculate Daily Benefit Amount

Based on the average daily wage over the last 6 full months of work.

Step 5a: Average daily wage

average_daily_wage = (gross salary over last 6 months) / 150

(150, not 180: BL assumes 25 working days per month over 6 months.)

Step 5b: Apply the progressive formula for 2026

Under 28 years old:

Aged 28 and over:

Step 5c: Apply the 2026 daily ceilings

• First 125 days of unemployment: maximum ₪550.76 per day
• Days 126-175: maximum ₪367.17 per day
• Days 176+: maximum ₪201.03 per day, but ONLY for a woman aged 57 to 60 on the 300-day track. A woman aged 60 to 67 on the same 300-day track has NO day-176 cap: her tail stays at ₪367.17. Applying 201.03 to her understates her entitlement by (367.17 - 201.03) for each of the 125 days from day 176, up to ₪20,767.50 at the ceiling. A duration rule and its payment rule are not the same rule.

Cap the formula's output to these ceilings. For long entitlements the average drops after day 125: project the front and the tail separately, never the day-1 rate times total days.

Step 5d: Payable days per month

BL pays for the "possible work days" in each calendar month, and those exclude Shabbat (ימים אלה אינם כוללים את ימי שבת), so a real month carries about 26 payable days and moves month to month. Treat daily * 25 as a conservative baseline. Do not confuse this with the 150 divisor, a separate convention.

Step 5d-bis: The first 5 unemployment days are never paid

No benefit is paid for the first 5 unemployment days in each 4 consecutive months of attendance, counted from the first attendance. These days are not deducted from the quota, so they cut the cash, not the entitlement. Over a 138-day or 175-day claim it bites two or three times. A projection that ignores it overstates month 1 by five days.

Step 5d-ter: Hefreshim. If the employer pays anything AFTER employment ended that relates to the 6 months used to build the average daily wage (a late bonus, back-pay, a labour-court settlement), the base re-opens and the claimant may be owed a top-up on benefit already paid. Not automatic: they apply to their local BL branch.

Step 5e: Deductions

The gross benefit is taxed: income tax withheld at source (often near 0% for low earners after credits; a claimant holding an exemption or reduction certificate should file it with BL, or reclaim from the ITA), Bituach Leumi at the fixed minimum of ₪48 a month (kolzchut still shows the older ₪32; btl.gov.il is authoritative), and mas briut. Low earners net close to 100%, mid-income about 85-90%, ceiling-hitters about 80-85%. Never promise the gross as take-home.

Worked examples for both age tiers, the long-entitlement projection, and the women's three-slice 300-day projection are in references/benefit-calculation-tables.md.

Step 6: Generate the Application Checklist

Give the user a personalized, ordered checklist.

1. Register online at Sherut HaTaasuka
   URL: https://www.taasuka.gov.il
   - Register immediately; entitlement runs from the registration date
   - Bring: teudat zehut, last 3 payslips, termination letter

2. Visit your local branch in person within 14 days
   - The online registration is not valid without it
   - Bring: original teudat zehut, sefach, all docs from step 1

3. File the Bituach Leumi unemployment claim (form T1500)
   URL: https://www.btl.gov.il/Pages/default.aspx
   - Unified online form through gov.il national ID login; if not yet registered at Sherut HaTaasuka, the same form does both
   - File within 12 months of first attendance. Filing later pays only for the 12 months preceding the filing date
   - Required: bank details, a signed and stamped employer confirmation of the reason and date employment ended, and the 6 most recent payslips including the final month, from every employer. Check the employer transmitted Form 100 (your wage data); if not, attach an employer confirmation of period and wage, or 12 payslips out of the last 18
   - If the employer will not sign it: the affidavit substitute is not published on any reachable BTL page, so treat it as unconfirmed and call *6050

4. Attend scheduled reporting at Sherut HaTaasuka
   - Missing a day costs the benefit for every day since the last attendance
   - Accept "suitable" offers under the s. 165 test

5. Monitor the Bituach Leumi decision
   - Benefit is paid on or about the 12th of the month for the previous month's attendance days
   - Check the decision letter for any denial grounds

6. If denied or underpaid, appeal (irur)
   - Informal: local BL va'adat tvi'ot, with new evidence. Formal: Beit Din Ezorit L'Avoda
   - **Do not quote a deadline from memory.** The windows usually cited could not be confirmed on any reachable source. Read the deadline off the decision letter, which states it, or call *6050
   - Free legal aid runs through the Legal Aid Department (האגף לסיוע משפטי) at the Ministry of Justice, not the Public Defender, which is criminal only

Step 7: Flag Common Denial Risks

Warn the user if any of these apply:

Special Cases

Shaagat HaAri 2026 Emergency Chal"t Regime [WINDOW CLOSED 14.5.2026]

This window has closed and none of its concessions are available. The defining period ran 28 Feb to 14 Apr 2026, extendable by joint ministerial order only to 14 May 2026. For any chal"t or job loss beginning after that date the standard 12-of-18 rule is the only rule. Ask about it only to classify an older claim, retroactive employer report, or appeal still in process.

The framework is חוק התוכנית לסיוע כלכלי (הוראת שעה) (תעסוקה), התשפ"ו-2026, recorded as התקבל בכנסת ביום י״ג בניסן התשפ״ו (31 במרץ 2026). Kol-Zchut notes it can be re-activated by order for a future emergency through the end of 2027, so treat it as a dormant standby mechanism.

For a claim that did fall inside the window the concessions were akhshara cut to 6 months out of 18 (and to 3 out of 18 for named special populations), benefit from day 1 with no 5-day deduction, no need to exhaust accrued vacation, and a bifurcated minimum chal"t length of 5 consecutive calendar days only for chal"t starting 28.2.2026 or 1.3.2026 and 10 consecutive calendar days otherwise. Every remaining rule, and the attachment each special population needs, is in references/eligibility-rules.md.

Other Special Cases

Vocational training, hashlamat hachnasa (form 5320), miluim dismissal protection under s. 41a, the narrow work-abroad routes, maternity-leave edge cases, and sickness or a competing disability benefit are all in references/eligibility-rules.md. Sick days are the one most often got wrong: up to 30 are payable inside the unemployment period and are deducted from the quota.

Bundled Resources

References

Scripts

Recommended MCP Servers

Without them the skill works from the bundled tables; cross-check btl.gov.il before acting.

Gotchas

1. Skipping the exclusion gate. A controlling shareholder in a closely-held company, an osek, a kibbutz member, or someone in regular or national service is outside the unemployment branch entirely. Twelve clean salaried months do not help them.

1. Confusing qualifying months with calendar months. One day of salaried work makes a full qualifying month. Count only months between age 18 and 67.

1. Conflating the two penalties. The 90-day resignation wait delays payment and does NOT reduce max days. Refusing a suitable offer does both: 90 days plus a permanent 30-day cut. The 90+30 penalty is not universal, see gotcha 8.

1. Mixing up the under-28 and 28+ rate tables. Under-28 rates (60/40/35/25%) are much lower than 28+ (80/50/45/30%). Agents routinely grab the wrong one for a 26-year-old.

1. Applying the wrong daily ceiling past day 125. After 125 payment days the ceiling drops from ₪550.76 to ₪367.17. Project the front and the tail separately.

1. Projecting cash without the unpaid first 5 days. The first 5 unemployment days in each 4 consecutive attendance months are never paid, and are not deducted from the quota. Agents quote a full first month and the user is five days short.

1. Under-counting dependants. A 22-year-old in regular IDF service, national service, or atuda is still a tlui. Missing one limb can drop a 30-year-old from 138 days to 100. "Single parent" is not automatically 3+.

1. Quoting the refusal penalty to a woman on the 300-day track. A woman aged 60-67 keeps her benefit in full when she refuses work or training. A woman aged 57-60 who refuses training from day 176 forfeits her entire remaining balance, which is worse than 90+30. Check which side of 60 she is on.

1. Treating employee-initiated chal"t as a waiting period. It is a full disqualification, however justified the leave. Only employer-initiated chal"t qualifies, and remaining vacation days are set off before payment starts.

1. Telling an under-20 claimant they are ineligible. Under 20 is not an automatic bar; a closed exception list applies, and a na'ar from 15 has a separate track.

1. Promising gross as net. The benefit is taxable: BL ₪48/month, health tax, income tax. Show gross AND estimated net.

1. Assuming the 90-day resignation clock starts at registration. BL counts it from the day work ceased: אם הפסקת לעבוד מרצונך תוכל להתחיל לקבל דמי אבטלה רק לאחר שחלפו 90 יום מיום הפסקת העבודה. Register immediately anyway.

1. Telling the claimant Form 100 is the wrong document. It is not. BTL asks the claimant to check the employer transmitted Form 100; only if not, attach an employer confirmation or 12 payslips out of 18. Form 126 is the employer's annual report to the assessor and is not on BTL's list.

1. Quoting 2026 figures past January 2027. Every ₪ value re-links with inflation each January.

Reference Links

Troubleshooting