Two olim, same accident, same twenty days off work. One is paid the full injury allowance. The other is paid nothing at all, because a form was never filed. The difference is not the injury, and it is not how long either of them has been in Israel. It is whether Bituach Leumi had a file open on the day it happened, and the aliyah paperwork sequence walks newly self-employed olim straight past that.
Israel calls this branch pgiah b'avoda, work injury. It is also the branch that reaches a salaried worker without waiting for the residency question to be settled, which is why it can be live for you well before the rest of your Israeli paperwork is. Both facts are on this page, and which one governs your position depends on whether you took a job or opened a file.
> This is general information, not tax, legal, or financial advice. Cross-border (US/UK) and Israeli tax interact in complex ways, and one statutory benefit can be treated differently by two systems at once. Consult a qualified cross-border professional before acting.
US tax treatment of pooled funds, including PFIC, lives on the PFIC page. This page is about a statutory benefit only. Nothing on it is an investment you hold, choose or are compared on, and where a pension fund appears it is only as a pointer to a different page.
Which Bituach Leumi benefit reaches a new oleh from day one?
Work-injury insurance, and it does not wait for your residency file to close. Bituach Leumi's own status rules put it starkly: a salaried worker who is an Israeli resident can be covered by all types of insurance, while a salaried worker who is not an Israeli resident is "covered with only 3 types of insurance", namely work accident, bankruptcy and maternity 1. The same page adds that a salaried or self-employed worker who is not yet 18 is covered for work accidents only 1. Read that the other way round and you have the newcomer's position: this branch reaches a person who is working in Israel while their aliyah or their residency file is still open, and it reaches a person working here on a visa before making aliyah at all.
The list of who is insured opens with salaried employees, "even if they are not Israeli residents" 2. And the four conditions Bituach Leumi sets for the injury allowance are all about the event and the paperwork rather than about your history: you have work-injury cover, you were injured in an accident at work, you produced an "initial medical certificate for work injured" stating the diagnosis and the period of incapacity together with the claim form, and you did not work as a result of the injury 12. Which branches do test a run of prior insured months, and how many each needs, is set out branch by branch on the Bituach Leumi qualifying periods page. The pension fund's own disability cover and its sixty-month clock belong to the income protection page. This page does not rebuild either.
One exclusion is worth naming early, because it is the one a pre-aliyah reader can trip over: a foreign worker staying in Israel illegally is on Bituach Leumi's published list of people ineligible for the injury allowance, alongside soldiers in permanent service and prisoners or detainees 12. Status at the time of the injury is doing real work in this branch, in both directions.
One disambiguation to get out of the way now, because it costs people real money. Israel has two different disability systems with two different rulebooks and two different boards. Work disability (nechut me'avoda) is what this page covers. General disability (nechut klalit) is a separate branch with its own gates, its own income test and its own rules about leaving Israel, and it lives on the general disability page. Two rules to take from this page rather than assume for that one: the work-disability pension is not reduced by earnings, because "the income (from work or from any other source) earned by the recipient of the work disability benefit does not affect the rate of the benefit due to him" 22; and the work-disability pension is paid abroad on request 32.
Your employer is abroad and you are in Israel. Who owes the contributions?
You do, and that changes what a payment gap costs you. Bituach Leumi splits the payment duty in two. For an ordinary employee of an Israeli employer, "the employer is the one who is obligated to pay insurance contributions for his employee, and therefore the employee's right to benefit is not affected by his employer's debt" 2. But "self-employed workers as well as hourly workers and workers in Israel whose employer is not an Israeli resident" are themselves the ones obligated to pay, and where such a person has a contributions debt, Bituach Leumi "may withhold a benefit from him or pay him a reduced benefit (in accordance with the amount of the debt and the period of delay in payment)" 2.
Read that against the shape of a lot of aliyah employment. An oleh who keeps a home-country employer and works from a flat in Israel reads onto Bituach Leumi's own category of a worker in Israel whose employer is not an Israeli resident. The foreign employer will not be filing a Bituach Leumi return, so the protective rule that shields an Israeli employee from the employer's arrears does not reach that arrangement. Your own payment record is the thing standing between an injury and a full benefit. Where the exact arrangement is unusual, a foreign company with an Israeli entity for instance, ask Bituach Leumi which category it puts you in rather than deciding it yourself. If you hold several Israeli jobs, the arithmetic is friendlier: each employer must pay contributions for you "as if he is the person's only employer" 2, and the allowance is then built on your income from all of them 14.
Two more cross-border mechanics that only ever come up for people who move. A salaried Israeli resident working abroad is covered by this branch if the employer is an Israeli resident and the employment contract was signed in Israel; where the contract was not signed in Israel, cover survives only if the workplace abroad is not itself obliged to carry work-accident insurance, and past five consecutive years abroad the employer has to approach the manager of the Work Injury Department to extend it 2. A self-employed Israeli resident injured while working abroad may be entitled to work-injury benefits in defined circumstances 2. If it happens, the claim goes directly to Bituach Leumi or through the Israeli consulate where you are staying, and the allowance is deposited to your Israeli bank account 40. And a work-injured Israeli resident staying abroad has treatment connected to the recognised injury financed through their kupah, reimbursed at the kupah's rate in Israel rather than at the local price 9, which is the sentence to remember before you approve a foreign hospital's estimate.
Does the commute count? In Israel it does, traffic accident included
Bituach Leumi treats an accident "on his way from home (or the place in which he lives) to the workplace, or from the workplace to his home, or from one workplace to another, traffic accident included" as a work accident 3. If the scheme you left behind drew the line at the workplace door and treated the journey as your own business, that assumption does not transfer, and it is worth checking how your former country's scheme actually handled the commute rather than carrying either belief across untested.
There is a detour rule, and its exceptions are culturally Israeli in a way no newcomer would guess. Cover is lost if you "made a significant stop on his usual route or made a significant detour" that was not for your employer's purposes, or, if self-employed, not for your occupation 3. But cover survives two named stops: performing morning prayers at the house of worship where you pray, and accompanying your child to nursery school, kindergarten or day care and bringing the child back, with "child" meaning up to age 10 or a child needing accompaniment because of an intellectual or physical impairment 3. A newcomer settling into a minyan and a gan run in the same first months is doing both of those things daily without knowing the statute has already thought about it.
The rest of the definition is broader than most newcomers expect. It covers an injury while trying to save people or property at the workplace; an injury inflicted by another person with an object found at the site, where the injury was not due to the work and you had no part in causing it; the employer-set meal break location and the trip to and from it, where breaks do not exceed three hours; workers'-committee duties; and remote work, where "a prejudice that occurred during remote work if it happened while working and as result thereof" is a work injury 3. That last limb is the one a lot of olim are actually living in, working an Israeli day from a rented flat for an employer who has never seen the country, and it is the same arrangement that puts the contributions duty on you rather than on them 2. Assault during and as a result of work, including sexual assault, is a work injury where it causes physical or emotional damage and requires medical treatment 3. Driving negligently and against the law or your employer's instruction takes the accident out, unless you died or were left disabled or unable to work for at least 10 days and the accident would otherwise have counted 3.
You registered with the Tax Authority. Did you register with Bituach Leumi?
These are two different acts, and only one of them buys you this cover. A self-employed worker is insured only "provided that they are registered with the National Insurance at the time of the injury" 2, and Bituach Leumi states the consequence flatly: "eligibility for work-injury allowance is subject to registration as self-employed prior to the accident" 6. Its own employee-versus-self-employed comparison says an employee's rights "are not affected due to delayed payment of insurance contributions by his/her employer", while a self-employed person's rights "may be affected if he/she does not register himself or is late in payment" 7.
Opening a Tax Authority file now offers a single digital procedure that can open the Bituach Leumi file at the same time, including for an osek patur, the exempt dealer. But if the Tax Authority file already exists, "you have to fill out a multi-annual report form" to open the Bituach Leumi one separately 5. That second path is the one aliyah tends to produce. Olim commonly open the Tax Authority file first, in a burst of paperwork handled by an accountant while the Misrad HaKlita file, the kupah and the bank account are all being sorted in the same fortnight, and the Bituach Leumi side is left as a follow-up. Bituach Leumi's instruction is the opposite: "if you are starting to work as a self-employed, we must be informed immediately upon the beginning of the activity, for you to be covered as self-employed worker" 5. A newcomer who opens an osek file in month two and gets round to Bituach Leumi after the first tax filing has no claim at all in the gap, not a reduced one.
The declared-income trap is the second half of the same form, and Bituach Leumi says it in terms: "if you are victim of an injury at work, the work injury benefit you will receive may be based on your disclosed income, even if your actual earnings are higher" 5. You may revise the income statement once a quarter, with advance payments updated accordingly, and the year-end true-up refunds or bills the difference 5. This is a harder estimate for an oleh than for anyone else: no Israeli trading history to extrapolate from, a client base that may still be invoicing in dollars or pounds, and a strong incentive to keep the first year's advance payments low while the cash-flow picture is unclear. Lowballing the estimate quietly caps the injury allowance too. Revising it upward once a quarter is free, and the year-end reconciliation squares the contributions either way 5.
"Self-employed" is also a defined term with a three-limb test, and a small side practice can fall outside it. You are an oved atzmai, a self-employed worker, for this purpose if you meet any one of: at least 20 hours a week on average in your profession; average monthly income at or above 50% of the average wage, NIS 6,885 as of 1 January 2026; or at least 12 hours a week on average with average monthly income at or above 15% of the average wage, NIS 2,065 as of 1 January 2026 4. Someone meeting none of the three is treated, for obligatory payments and for benefit eligibility alike, as a person with income from sources other than work 4. A few hours of consulting a week while you are still in ulpan can land under all three limbs, and the registration that protects a full practice will not be doing anything for it.
What does the medical half look like when you do not have a kupah yet?
The medical entitlement is separate from the money, and it is delivered through one channel only. A work injured person "is entitled to receive medical care from Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) alone" under the agreements signed with Bituach Leumi, "and not through private medical care", the four named being Clalit, Leumit, Meuchedet and Maccabi 8. A salaried employee approaches the kupah with an employer's referral form BL/250; a self-employed person uses the self-referral form BL/283 8. First aid also comes from Magen David Adom, a hospital or an emergency clinic near the place of injury, but continuing treatment only at a kupah 8. If an ambulance took you on the day of the injury, the kupah reimburses it against the Bituach Leumi recognition authorisation and the original receipts 8.
That makes kupah registration the delivery channel for half of this benefit, and its timing is aliyah-anchored. Register at the Misrad HaKlita offices in the airport on arrival; failing that, at any post office; from three weeks after arrival, once the Interior Ministry has passed your details to Bituach Leumi, online; and if you have not registered within 90 days of aliyah, only in person at the branch nearest your home 37. Separately, a new oleh with no income or income below NIS 688 as of 1 January 2026 is exempt from health-insurance contributions for six months from the day of aliyah, extendable by another six months for the months in which Misrad HaKlita is also paying subsistence benefits, on production of a subsistence-benefit certificate 37. That exemption is about contributions, not about whether this branch covers you. It does not gate the work-injury branch either way.
The scope of the care is wider than the ordinary health basket. Bituach Leumi: "the medical care of the work injured is extensive: it includes all kinds of treatments whether or not they are included in the health basket" 9. Basket treatments are provided under the Public Health Law; treatments outside it come under the Bituach Leumi and kupah agreements, and Bituach Leumi names complementary medicine and medical cannabis as entitlements even though they sit outside the basket 9. If the cost of a recommended service or device exceeds the kupah tariff, you can ask Bituach Leumi to review the kupah's decision, and one of its physicians examines it on the basis of the condition arising from the work injury 9.
If you are not yet an Israeli resident, the route is entirely different and prior approval replaces the kupah referral. Approvals and reimbursements are arranged in advance, and to get one you must hold three documents together: the Bituach Leumi recognition authorisation, a medical recommendation for the procedure, and a booked appointment for the service, all attached to the request, which goes to an outsourced accounts-control contractor whose email, postal address and telephone number Bituach Leumi publishes on that page 10. Bituach Leumi's published claim route for a worker who is not an Israeli resident is written for foreign workers: request a temporary ID number, then file the injury-allowance claim online with a valid residence permit and a passport photocopy, handled by the branch nearest your place of residence in Israel, with the employer completing BL/250 for you 11. On that page Bituach Leumi says such a worker "will be subject to the conditions applicable to a salaried employee", and a recognised worker in that position "will be eligible by law for medical care related to the recognized injury" even without a National Health Insurance entitlement 11. If your own status is something else, a returning resident inside a health-services waiting period or an oleh whose residency file is still open, put your case to Bituach Leumi rather than assuming which of the two routes applies to you.
How much does dmei pgiah pay, and from which day?
Dmei pgiah, the injury allowance, pays 75% of your insured income, for at most 13 weeks, and the day it starts is one of the sharpest employee-versus-osek divergences in the system. The allowance runs "for a maximum of 13 weeks (91 days) which begin the day after the injury" 13. The rate is 75% of the income subject to insurance contributions in the three full months preceding the first day of the month you stopped working, or the month of injury up to the day it occurred plus the two previous months, divided by 90, whichever is higher, capped at NIS 1,314.25 a day as of 1 January 2026 14.
One quietly valuable rule for a newcomer whose sick bank is nearly empty: "the days for which work-injury allowance are paid will not be deducted from your quota of sick leave days" 12. The sick-leave ladder itself belongs to the employment leave benefits page.
| Salaried employee | Osek (self-employed) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cover starts | Your first shift; insured "even if they are not Israeli residents" 2 | Only if registered with Bituach Leumi at the time of the injury, and paying contributions on time 2613 |
| Who owes the contributions | The employer, where the employer is an Israeli resident; your right is not affected by that employer's debt 2 | You; a debt may mean a withheld or reduced benefit 2 |
| Referral for treatment | Employer's form BL/250 8 | Self-referral form BL/283 8 |
| Day the allowance starts | Employer pays the injury day; absence under 12 days is paid from the third day after the injury day; absence over 12 days is paid per the days of incapacity, with Bituach Leumi recovering the first 12 days from the employer, except an employer of a household worker 13 | Paid per the period of incapacity after the first 12 days of absence are deducted outright 13 |
| Income the 75% is built on | Salary subject to contributions across all employers, including overtime, premiums and grants 14 | Income in the current tax year, and the benefit "may be based on your disclosed income, even if your actual earnings are higher" 514 |
| Insured for unemployment? | Yes 7 | No 7 |
Bituach Leumi's own worked example of the short-absence rule: injury on 1 June 2023, absent until 8 June 2023, allowance paid 4 June to 8 June 13. An employer may also pay the allowance itself under a special authorisation, at not less than the statutory amount, in which case you cannot also be paid by Bituach Leumi 13.
Two rules in the small print exist for exactly the person whose Israeli earnings record is three months old and lumpy. First, if you did not receive a full salary in the three months preceding the injury, Bituach Leumi will examine calculating the allowance as though you had, provided you send authorisations showing the absence was for justified reasons such as sick leave or vacation 14. An oleh who started mid-month, took unpaid days for a Misrad HaPnim appointment or came off ulpan into a partial first month has a real interest in that sentence. Second, if you worked in several workplaces in the three months before the injury, you must attach pay slips or wage certificates from all of them, and a salaried employee absent for reasons beyond their control in those three months must attach certificates for the days of absence 15. Keep the paper from the messy months.
There is also a partial-return rule: if a kupah authorisation says you are partially incapacitated and your hours are cut, the allowance is reduced and paid for at most eight hours a day, and if you return to work partially for one employer you are not paid for the hours you worked but are topped up for the hours of leave, to a maximum of eight a day 14.
Two more things a private policy will not match. Income tax, national insurance contributions and health insurance contributions are all deducted from the injury allowance 14, so the state's 75% and a private policy's 75% are not the same 75%; the income protection page is where that comparison lives. And there is an employee-only top-up route: where your employer paid you, during the 11 months following the injury, an additional payment such as convalescence allowance, clothing or a bonus, and that payment equals or exceeds a quarter of the minimum wage, NIS 1,611 as of 1 April 2026, you may be entitled to injury-allowance differentials, claimed online with pay stubs within 12 months of receiving the payment 14. The same route covers wage differentials paid for the months on which the allowance was calculated 14. Note that this one figure tracks the minimum wage and carries an April date, not the January date every other figure here carries.
### A worked example, aliyah-anchored
Say you land in month 0, start a salaried job in month 2 at NIS 14,000 gross a month, and slip on a wet floor in month 4. Your statutory sick bank is barely two months old. You have no unemployment qualifying months. You have no Israeli pension-fund history. You have full work-injury cover.
Three months at NIS 14,000 is NIS 42,000. Seventy-five per cent of that is NIS 31,500; divided by 90 that is NIS 350 a day, comfortably under the NIS 1,314.25 daily cap as of 1 January 2026 14. Your employer pays the day of the injury itself, and that day is not part of the count below 13. If your certified incapacity then runs 20 days, you are over the 12-day line, so the allowance is paid across the days of incapacity and Bituach Leumi recovers the first 12 days from your employer 13. Twenty days at NIS 350 is NIS 7,000 gross, before income tax and both contributions come off 14.
Now run the same person as a newly registered osek. Version one: you filed the Tax Authority form in month 2 and never filed the multi-annual report, so no Bituach Leumi file existed on the day you fell. Registration prior to the accident is the condition 6, so there is nothing to reduce. The claim fails outright. Version two: you did open the Bituach Leumi file, but with no Israeli trading history you declared expected income of NIS 6,000 a month to keep advance payments low, and the benefit is built on the income you disclosed 5. A self-employed person's allowance is calculated on income in the current tax year rather than on a three-month lookback 14, so take that declared NIS 6,000 a month as the working figure: through the same 75%-divided-by-90 arithmetic, three months at NIS 6,000 is NIS 18,000, 75% is NIS 13,500, and divided by 90 that is NIS 150 a day. The first 12 days come off outright 13, leaving 8 payable days, so NIS 1,200 instead of NIS 7,000. Same accident, same person, same 20 days off work.
What happens after 91 days?
You move to stage two, nechut me'avoda, work disability, and you claim it separately. If you were absent more than 91 days, or you are left with an impairment from the injury, you submit a claim for determination of a degree of disability, ideally near the end of the injury-allowance period, and in any case within 12 months of the date of the injury 16. A Medical Board sets a percentage from the list of medical impairments in the National Insurance Regulations. Multiple impairments are weighted, not added: Bituach Leumi's own example is 20% for the back plus 10% for a leg, which becomes 20% plus 8%, that is 10% of the remaining 80%, for a total of 28% 18. Documented pre-existing impairments are deducted, and Bituach Leumi's worked example is a slight spine impairment of 10% before the accident subtracted from a severe 30% after it, leaving 20% 18. If you arrived with an injury history from your home country, expect it to be looked for and expect the documents to matter.
| Degree determined | What it pays |
|---|---|
| Temporary 9% to 100% | Monthly pension 22 |
| Permanent 9% to 19.99% | One-time grant, equal to the monthly pension multiplied by 43 22 |
| Permanent 20% to 100% | Monthly pension, plus a disability card 22 |
| Permanent under 9% | No benefit 22 |
A 100% degree pays the daily injury allowance due to you multiplied by 30, with a maximum work-disability pension of NIS 39,428 a month as of 1 January 2026 for salaried and self-employed alike, re-set each 1 January with the consumer price index 22. Those two ceilings are one formula: NIS 1,314.25 a day as of 1 January 2026 multiplied by 30 is NIS 39,427.50 1422. A lower degree pays that percentage of the 100% figure, so a 50% degree pays half 22. If you took the grant and your condition later worsens to 20% or more, a pension begins and the surplus grant is deducted from it 22. The pension is paid on the 28th of the month, for that month, into your bank account 22.
Follow that formula backwards and you find the newcomer's real exposure. The pension is the daily injury allowance multiplied by 30 22, and that daily figure was built on your Israeli income in the three months before the injury 14. A thin, partial or mid-month first quarter in the country does not just shrink a 13-week allowance; it sets the level of a pension that can run for decades. That is the strongest reason a first-year oleh has to send the authorisations for any month in which a full salary was not received, which is the recalculation Bituach Leumi says it will examine 14.
Two regulations can move the number. Under Regulation 15, where a permanent degree is set, the board examines whether the injury stops you returning to the work you did before it and caused a permanent income drop of more than 20%, and may increase the permanent degree by up to half, so 30% can become 45% 18. The published bands tie the increase to the size of the drop: a 20% to 25% fall gives up to a quarter, 26% to 35% up to a third, over 36% up to a half 19. The comparison is your income in the quarter before the injury against the quarter before the committee sits, and here the employee and osek routes split again: an employee's income is taken from Bituach Leumi's own data, with pay stubs optional, while a self-employed person or controlling owner is assessed on VAT reports for the period 19. A newly registered oleh osek may have only one or two VAT periods on file, so those returns are worth filing carefully from the first one. The Authority Committee, a Bituach Leumi doctor plus a work-injury claims officer plus a rehabilitation officer, meets without you present and sends its recommendation on to the Medical Board; if it recommends no increase or only a partial one, you can appeal in writing and may be called to argue in person 19.
Regulation 17 lets someone with a permanent degree of 20% or more ask for a re-examination after a real, non-temporary income drop, at least one year and no more than five years after a Medical Board or Medical Appeals Board set the degree; the Authority Committee decides it without sending the file back to a Medical Board, can raise or lower the degree by a quarter, a third or a half, may change a Regulation 15 determination but not the medical disability itself, and Bituach Leumi can initiate it too 20.
A temporary degree is set for a maximum future period of one year, paid as a pension, after which you are summoned to another board 21. Someone on a temporary degree below 100% who cannot work at any job at all and has no income from any occupation may be given a temporary 100% for up to four months, on a Claim for a Needy Disabled Person decided by the Authority Committee 21. And note the floor for vocational rehabilitation sits below the pension threshold: a degree of at least 10% set by a Bituach Leumi Medical Committee opens the door, provided you cannot work in your previous occupation or other work suited to your education, skills and experience, you need training to re-enter the labour market, and you are able to enter paid work at the end 24. So a small permanent degree can leave you outside the pension and inside rehabilitation. For an oleh whose previous occupation was licensed somewhere else, that middle door is the one worth knowing about.
One duty attaches to the money. Bituach Leumi may reduce, delay or rule out the work-disability pension if the disabled person, without justification, disobeys a doctor's orders meant to speed recovery, restore work capacity or reduce the disability degree, or disobeys an order given under law about vocational rehabilitation 23.
What is the Medical Board like in a language you do not speak yet?
It is conducted in Hebrew, and Bituach Leumi expressly lets you bring someone to speak for you. "If it is hard for you to describe your medical disabilities, you may bring someone to represent you (an attorney, translator or family member) who will present your claims for you", and those claims go into the board's report, which you sign 17. That is probably the single most useful sentence on their site for anyone in year one. Bituach Leumi also runs free advice and preparation for medical boards at its Helping Hand centres, bookable by telephone 17.
The board is one or two medical adjudicators who are not Bituach Leumi employees, appointed by the Minister of Labor and picked by a Bituach Leumi doctor for the specialty your injury needs, with a Bituach Leumi secretary present to record what you say 17. Bring photo ID: "without a photo ID, the board will not examine you" 17. Bring copies of the medical documents connected to the injury, opinions, discharge letters and any imaging with its interpretation, and you may hand in a written statement of your claims to be attached to the report 17. You sign a consent form before any physical examination, you may bring an escort to be present during it and help you dress, a physical examination is not always conducted, and the examination is diagnostic only, so the doctor has no authority to discuss your treatment 17. If one of the doctors is your own attending physician or gave you an opinion, say so to the secretary and you are summoned to a different board 17. The decision and a copy of the report arrive by post; keep the copy, because a second one is charged for, and failing to appear twice means being charged for expenses 17.
That last detail matters more for a newcomer than for anyone else. The report comes by post, the appeal clock is short, and a first-year oleh is often between a landing address, a short-term rental and a first real lease. Keep your address current with Bituach Leumi and open the post. And if the process drags while you are still out of work and left with a disability, you may ask Bituach Leumi for an advance, which in special cases the claims officer will start without your asking 17.
What a representative may charge you, and what is free
This is where an oleh with no Hebrew is most exposed, so the numbers are worth carrying. The law caps what citizens' rights organisations, lawyers, tax consultants and accountants may charge for handling a claim, and work injury is on the list of benefits it covers 4143. The payment has three components: up to NIS 961 as of 1 January 2026 for opening the file, payable after you sign the agreement; a fee set as a percentage of the benefit, payable only once you actually start receiving the benefit from Bituach Leumi; and a supplement of up to NIS 961 as of 1 January 2026 where the benefit is under NIS 1,440 as of 1 January 2026 and a reduced percentage therefore applies, again payable only once the benefit starts 42.
The list of what that fee already includes is long, and it is the list to read before agreeing to anything extra: help filing the claim and anything deriving from it, medical and professional opinions from the representative or professionals associated with them, appearing before Bituach Leumi committees at first instance and on appeal, appearing before Ministry of Health committees, the review at the end of a temporary period, an appeal against a Medical Committee decision, representation in the labour court, and capitalisation of a work-disability pension 43. Several claims arising from the same event count as one claim, and a representative may not bill you per claim or per separate file 43. Only a short list of items may carry an extra charge, among them representation in a labour court to win recognition of an injury as a work accident, and you may not be charged extra where Bituach Leumi rejected the claim for technical reasons such as missing details or a missed hearing 43.
Two services cost nothing at all: the Helping Hand preparation for a medical board 41, and, if you decide to appeal to the Labor Court, legal aid from the Ministry of Justice legal-aid district for your area, covering legal advice, drafting the legal documents, representation in the labour court, and the costs of the legal service as the district determines 2841. You apply to the district for your area and it decides on the aid and its extent 28. For someone in year one with no Hebrew and no lawyer, that pair is the highest-value information on this page.
Every deadline in one table
| Step | Clock | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Claim for injury allowance | 12 months from the date of injury; later filing "may be prejudicial to your right" 15 | Branch nearest your residence, online, by post, by fax or in the branch service box 15 |
| Claim for work-disability benefit | 12 months from the date of injury; later filing may affect the right "in whole or in part" 16 | Online, document service, mail, fax or branch service box 16 |
| Claim for injury-allowance differentials | 12 months from receiving the employer's payment 14 | Online with pay stubs, separate stubs per employer 14 |
| Appeal a Medical Board degree | 30 days in writing from receipt of notification; if filed in time without arguments, 30 more days for the arguments, so 60 from receipt 25 | Medical Appeals Board, three specialist physicians who are not Bituach Leumi employees, and who may uphold, change or cancel the first decision whichever side appealed 25 |
| Appeal the Appeals Board on a question of law | 30 days from written notification 25 | Regional Labor Court 25 |
| Ask a claims officer's decision to be looked at again | 6 months from the day you received the claims officer's decision, on form BL/910 26 | Regional Claims Committee of public figures, sitting monthly in the Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Be'er Sheva branches without you present, open to applicants countrywide; its decision is a recommendation for the claims officer's further consideration 26 |
| Appeal a Bituach Leumi decision to court | 12 months from the day the decision was delivered to you 27 | Regional Labor Court: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv (now sitting in Bat Yam), Haifa, Nof HaGalil, Be'er Sheva; a self-represented appellant may file at any labour court in the country and the papers are forwarded 27 |
Two things about the Claims Committee that are easy to get wrong. It will not hear everything: it covers claims-officer decisions on nechut me'avoda, dmei pgiah and dependants of the work-injured, but not Medical Board or Medical Appeals Board percentages, not incapacity-to-earn decisions, not decisions on medical matters or resting on a doctor's consultation, not rehabilitation-officer decisions, and not decisions on personal status and residency 26. That last exclusion is worth reading twice if you are new, because a residency determination is exactly the kind of decision an oleh is most likely to be arguing with in year one, and this committee is not the forum for it.
And going to it does not buy you time: Bituach Leumi states that applying to the Claims Committee does not postpone the statutory deadline for suing in the Labor Court, so the 12-month court clock keeps running from the day you received the claims officer's decision 26. Filing with the committee and waiting for its answer can eat most of a year that you cannot get back. If the reason you are hesitating is that you have neither Hebrew nor a lawyer, the free Ministry of Justice legal aid exists precisely for the court route 28, and using it is faster than discovering the committee did not toll anything.
What happens if the worker dies?
A dependants' benefit goes to family members of an insured employee or self-employed person who died as a result of a work injury, and to family members of a volunteer who died from an injury during volunteer activity 29. The statute is gender-asymmetric, which is worth knowing rather than discovering: a widow is entitled "even if she works or has another source of income", while a widower qualifies only if he has a child who is also eligible, or is unable to support himself, or has monthly income not exceeding NIS 7,848 as of 1 January 2026 29. Children's eligibility runs across defined study, IDF, pre-army, national-service and soldier-student tracks, and ends on the day they marry 29.
The clause that lands differently on an immigrant family is the one about everyone else. Parents qualify if most of their livelihood came from the deceased, or if they cannot support themselves and Bituach Leumi has confirmed they were wholly or partly dependent on the deceased 29. A grandparent, brother or sister qualifies only while unable to support themselves and only if they lived in the deceased's home for at least 12 months before the injury and their entire livelihood came from the deceased 29. A sibling or grandparent who stayed in the home country fails that household test by geography, whatever the money flowing to them looked like.
Rates are expressed as a percentage of a full work-disability pension, itself computed on 75% of the salary the deceased received in the three months before stopping work, with the same NIS 39,428 maximum as of 1 January 2026 and the same annual 1 January indexation 30. A widow or widower with one child living with them gets 80%, with two children 90%, with three or more 100% 30. A childless widow gets 40% between ages 40 and 50, 60% from 50, and below 40 a one-time grant at 60% multiplied by 36 30. Where the children take the benefit in their own right, one child gets 60%, two 80%, three 90% and four or more 100% 30. Where there is no widow, widower or eligible child, other relatives proven to have been fully dependent get 50% for one, 75% for two, 90% for three and 100% for four 30. Dependants abroad must notify Bituach Leumi in writing of travel or emigration and request continued payment, and foreign residents entitled to the benefit are paid to their account abroad 31.
Israeli side: what Israel deducts, and what follows you out
Israel deducts on the way in and pays on the way out. On the injury allowance, income tax, national insurance contributions and health insurance contributions are all deducted 14.
On the work-disability pension, Bituach Leumi publishes four headings: an exemption from insurance contributions, offsets of debts to Bituach Leumi, deductions under the Health Insurance Law, and a deduction for the work-accident-disabled organisation 23. The health-insurance deduction is NIS 123 a month until retirement age, and after it NIS 237 for an individual or NIS 340 for a couple, all as of 1 January 2026, and a foreign resident is exempt from that deduction entirely 23. Someone drawing the pension with no other income is exempt from insurance contributions for the period of entitlement, and so is anyone on a permanent 100% degree even with other income, although a self-employed person still pays for work injury and an employer still pays work-injury and bankruptcy contributions for an employee 23. Debt offsets reach contributions debts, advances, sums paid in error or unlawfully, and court-ordered alimony or child support 23. The deduction for the work-accident-disabled organisation covers membership dues and its mutual funds, and you can object in writing, after which it stops one month later 23. That page does not address income tax on the pension, so this page will not tell you either way: take it to a tax professional with your own residency facts.
Portability is the part a lifelong Israeli never has to ask about. Recipients of a work-disability pension who are staying abroad, and those who have emigrated, must notify Bituach Leumi of the travel or emigration and request continuation; if approved, the pension is paid to their bank account in Israel or abroad as they request, and someone entitled who has returned to their own country is paid to their account abroad 32. The leaving-Israel rules for general disability are a different set, on a different page.
Your home country: labelled by passport
US olim. There is no US-Israel social security agreement, and Bituach Leumi says so directly: "a Friendship and Shipping Agreement has been signed between Israel and USA. This agreement does not constitute an agreement in the field of social security" 33. So the Israeli contributions that buy this cover earn you no US credit and relieve no US self-employment tax; that consequence has its own page, US self-employment tax with no totalization. Structurally, the thing to absorb is that Israel runs this as one national branch of a single social-insurance system you are inside from your first shift, funded by contributions the employer pays to Bituach Leumi rather than by a policy the employer buys 2, with the commute expressly covered under the National Insurance Law 3.
UK olim. An existing UK Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit is exportable. GOV.UK: "If you're getting Industrial Injuries Benefit for work-related accidents and illnesses, you can still get this abroad. Contact the office dealing with your benefit if you're still in the UK, or the International Pension Centre if you're living abroad" 34. Separately, the Israel-UK convention has been in force since 1 November 1957 and includes the work-injury branch, and its who-is-covered table marks the UK yes for employee and yes for self-employed 33.
Canada olim. Israel has signed only a limited convention with Canada, in force from 1 September 2003, excluding Quebec, and it covers only prevention of double payment of insurance contributions 33. There is no work-injury coordination in it.
South Africa and Australia olim. Neither country appears on Israel's convention lists at all, comprehensive or limited 33. Say it plainly rather than leave it implied: there is nothing to coordinate.
France olim. The France convention has been in force since 1 October 1966 and includes the work-injury branch. On the same page, the who-is-covered table marks France yes for employee and no for self-employed and for a person subject to the laws of the convention country 33. Both entries are published facts; how they interact for a French oleh who is an osek is a question for Bituach Leumi's International Affairs Division rather than an inference to draw here.
| Origin | Convention with Israel | Work-injury branch included? |
|---|---|---|
| United States | None; the Friendship and Shipping Agreement is not a social security agreement 33 | Not applicable |
| United Kingdom | Comprehensive, in force 1 November 1957 33 | Yes 33 |
| France | Comprehensive, in force 1 October 1966 33 | Yes, with "no" against self-employed in the who-is-covered table 33 |
| Canada | Limited only, in force 1 September 2003, excluding Quebec 33 | No; double-contribution prevention only 33 |
| South Africa | Not on either list 33 | Not applicable |
| Australia | Not on either list 33 | Not applicable |
Treaty and convention: what does a convention actually buy you here?
Less than you would expect, and that is the counter-intuitive part. Bituach Leumi defines who its conventions reach in four groups, and the one that describes an oleh is the fourth: "Israeli resident who immigrated to Israel from a country with which Israel has a social security convention after accumulating there a period of insurance" 39. A period of insurance built up somewhere else is the raw material a convention works with. Israel's work-injury branch asks for something else: cover at the time of the injury, and the four entitlement conditions about the accident, the medical certificate and not working 212. For a newly arrived salaried worker, the convention is doing very little on this branch. It matters at the margins, for a posted worker who stays under a home country's laws, or for exporting a benefit you already hold, which is why the UK line above is about a UK benefit following you rather than about Israeli cover.
Tax is a separate question and it is genuinely open. Article 21 of the US-Israel income tax convention reads: "Social security payments and other public pensions paid by one of the Contracting States to an individual who is a resident of the other Contracting State shall be exempt from tax in both Contracting States. This Article shall not apply to payments described in Article 22 (Governmental Functions)" 35. The saving clause in Article 6(3) does not override it, because Article 6(4)(a) protects Article 21 35. But read the words: the Article covers a payment by one State to a resident of *the other* State. A US citizen resident in Israel receiving an Israeli benefit is not within that wording, because the paying State and the State of residence are the same. Article 21 is cited for that case often, and it is the wrong tool for it.
US domestic law puts the question differently again. IRS Publication 525: "Amounts you receive as workers' compensation for an occupational sickness or injury are fully exempt from tax if they're paid under a workers' compensation act or a statute in the nature of a workers' compensation act. The exemption also applies to your survivors" 36. The same passage adds that if you return to work, salary for light duties is taxable as wages 36. What neither Publication 525 nor the treaty text says is whether a foreign statutory scheme meets the "in the nature of" test. So this page will not tell you that Israeli dmei pgiah or nechut me'avoda is, or is not, taxable on a US return. Take both passages to a cross-border professional and get an answer for your own facts.
The governing Israeli statute throughout is the National Insurance Law [Consolidated Version], 5755-1995 38.
What this page deliberately does not cover
The pension fund's own disability layer, the 60-month qualifying clock and private ovdan kosher avoda are on the income protection page. General disability and its income test are on the general disability page. Which branches a newcomer can reach and when is on the qualifying periods page, with the branch overview on the Bituach Leumi coverage page and contribution rates and payment mechanics on the payments page. Lump-sum-on-diagnosis products are on the critical illness page, and underwriting with pre-existing conditions on the pre-existing condition page. Osek setup generally lives on the self-employed obligations page, kupah choice on the choosing a kupat cholim page, and the unemployment comparison on the unemployment benefits page.
If you have opened, or are about to open, an osek file, check this week that Bituach Leumi has a file for you and not only the Israel Tax Authority. Registration before the accident is the whole condition, and it is the one thing on this page you cannot fix afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
Bituach Leumi's work-injury branch covers a salaried oleh from the first shift, and covers a salaried worker who is not an Israeli resident. A self-employed oleh is covered only if registered with Bituach Leumi before the accident, and a Tax Authority file is not that registration. Where the employer is not Israeli, the worker owes the contributions.
If you are working as a salaried employee, yes. Bituach Leumi's list of who is covered by work-injury insurance opens with salaried employees, "even if they are not Israeli residents" [[2]], and its status rules say a salaried worker who is not an Israeli resident is covered for only three types of insurance: work accident, bankruptcy and maternity [[1]]. Its published claim route for a worker who is not an Israeli resident is written for foreign workers, and it runs: request a temporary ID number, then file the injury-allowance claim online with a valid residence permit and a passport photocopy, handled by the branch nearest your place of residence in Israel, with your employer completing form BL/250. Bituach Leumi adds that such a worker is subject to the conditions applicable to a salaried employee [[11]]. If your own status is different, an oleh whose residency file is still open or a returning resident, put your case to Bituach Leumi rather than assuming which route applies.
No. Bituach Leumi states that "eligibility for work-injury allowance is subject to registration as self-employed prior to the accident" [[6]], and a self-employed person is insured only if registered with the National Insurance at the time of the injury [[2]]. Opening a Tax Authority file now offers a single digital procedure that can open the Bituach Leumi file at the same time, but where the Tax Authority file already exists, "you have to fill out a multi-annual report form" to open the Bituach Leumi one separately [[5]]. Bituach Leumi's own instruction is that it must be informed immediately on beginning activity for you to be covered as a self-employed worker [[5]].
Recognition is not the problem; payment is. Remote work is expressly inside the definition of a work accident: "a prejudice that occurred during remote work if it happened while working and as result thereof" is a work injury [[3]]. But Bituach Leumi puts self-employed workers, hourly workers and "workers in Israel whose employer is not an Israeli resident" in the same payment category: the worker, not the employer, is obligated to pay the insurance contributions, and where there is a contributions debt Bituach Leumi may withhold the benefit or pay a reduced one, in proportion to the debt and the delay [[2]]. The protective rule that an ordinary employee's right to benefit is not affected by the employer's debt applies only where the employer is the one obligated to pay [[2]]. If you are on a foreign payroll, your own payment record is what stands between an injury and a full benefit; where the arrangement is unusual, ask Bituach Leumi which category it puts you in.
Yes. An accident on the way from home to the workplace, from the workplace to home, or from one workplace to another, traffic accident included, is a work accident [[3]]. Cover is lost if you made a significant stop or a significant detour that was not for your employer's purposes, but it survives two named stops: morning prayers at the house of worship where you pray, and taking a child to and from nursery, kindergarten or day care, with "child" meaning up to age 10 or a child needing accompaniment because of an intellectual or physical impairment [[3]]. If the scheme you left behind excluded the commute, that assumption does not transfer.
It pays 75% of the income subject to insurance contributions over a three-month base divided by 90, capped at NIS 1,314.25 a day as of 1 January 2026, for a maximum of 13 weeks (91 days) beginning the day after the injury [[13]][[14]]. Income tax, national insurance contributions and health insurance contributions are all deducted from it [[14]]. It does not burn your sick bank: "the days for which work-injury allowance are paid will not be deducted from your quota of sick leave days" [[12]]. If you did not receive a full salary in the three months before the injury, Bituach Leumi will examine calculating it as though you had, on authorisations showing the absence was justified [[14]].
Two reasons stack. First, the day count: an employee absent for under 12 days is paid from the third day after the injury day, and one absent for longer is paid across the days of incapacity, while a self-employed person is paid only after the first 12 days of absence are deducted outright [[13]]. Second, the base: a self-employed person's allowance is calculated on income in the current tax year [[14]], and Bituach Leumi warns that "the work injury benefit you will receive may be based on your disclosed income, even if your actual earnings are higher" [[5]], so a low expected-income declaration made to keep advance payments down also caps the benefit. The declaration can be revised once a quarter [[5]].
Bituach Leumi expressly allows it: "If it is hard for you to describe your medical disabilities, you may bring someone to represent you (an attorney, translator or family member) who will present your claims for you", and the claims are recorded in the board's report, which you sign [[17]]. You may also hand in a written statement of your claims to be attached to the report, and bring an escort to be present during a physical examination [[17]]. Bring photo ID, because "without a photo ID, the board will not examine you" [[17]]. Bituach Leumi also offers free advice and preparation for medical boards at its Helping Hand centres [[17]][[41]].
A Medical Board degree must be appealed in writing within 30 days of receiving notification, extended by a further 30 days for the arguments if the appeal itself was filed in time [[25]]. A request that a Regional Claims Committee re-examine a claims officer's decision goes in on form BL/910 within 6 months of receiving that decision, and Bituach Leumi warns that applying to the committee does not postpone the court deadline [[26]]. An appeal to the Regional Labor Court must be filed within 12 months of the day the decision was delivered to you [[27]]. If you appeal to the Labor Court, you can ask the Ministry of Justice legal-aid district for your area for free legal aid covering advice, drafting documents, representation and the costs of the legal service [[28]].
The law caps it, and work injury is on the covered list [[41]][[43]]. There are three components: up to NIS 961 as of 1 January 2026 to open the file, payable after you sign the agreement; a fee set as a percentage of the benefit, payable only once you actually start receiving the benefit; and a supplement of up to NIS 961 as of 1 January 2026 where the benefit is below NIS 1,440 as of 1 January 2026 [[42]]. Filing help, opinions, appearing before Bituach Leumi committees at first instance and on appeal, and representation in the labour court are all already inside that fee, several claims from one event count as one claim, and no extra charge is allowed where the claim was rejected for technical reasons such as missing details or a missed hearing [[43]].
On request. Recipients staying abroad and those who have emigrated must notify Bituach Leumi of the travel or emigration and request continuation of payment; if approved, the pension goes to their bank account in Israel or abroad as they request, and someone entitled who has returned to their own country is paid to their account abroad [[32]]. Dependants' benefit follows the same notification-and-request pattern [[31]]. A foreign resident is also exempt from the health-insurance contribution otherwise deducted from the pension [[23]]. The leaving-Israel rules for general disability are a separate set and live on that branch's own page.