National Insurance Institute Faces Backlash Over Autism Allowance Freezes
The National Insurance Institute faces severe criticism from labor courts and lawyers after freezing thousands of autism disability allowances amid fraud suspicions and secret blacklists.
In early July, a public storm erupted after the acting director general of the National Insurance Institute, Zvika Cohen, claimed that parents of children on the autistic spectrum view the diagnosis as a kind of exit. People are writing on social media that they made an exit, ripped off the National Insurance because the child was recognized with autism, Cohen said.
This public statement reflected a series of moves carried out by the National Insurance Institute over the past year, which sparked quite a few controversies as part of the institution's attempt to combat the existing phenomenon of fraud.
It is now learned by Globes that the National Insurance holds a kind of black list, within which a series of health professionals were marked by the institution. The intention is that these are diagnosticians who were suspected that the diagnoses they perform are not kosher and that there is suspicion they were forged. Generally, this refers to diagnoses carried out privately and not institutionally, as is done, among other things, in health maintenance organizations or through the Ministry of Welfare.
According to National Insurance data, since 2018 the number of children on the autistic spectrum has doubled every four years. In recent years, several fraud affairs have been exposed, dealing with diagnoses and forged certificates for children on the autistic spectrum, in order to fraudulently receive disabled child allowances from the National Insurance Institute. In one affair, dubbed the Childrens Channel, indictments were also filed in September 2025 against five defendants for offenses of systematic fraud and forgery against the National Insurance, to the tune of millions of shekels.
This was not the single affair, and attempts to cheat the system exist. However, in December 2025 an unusual event occurred, which also led the labor courts to sharply criticize the institution responsible for paying allowances in Israel.
Cancellation Without Proof
In that same December, the National Insurance sent text messages, and later also letters, to parents of children on the autistic spectrum, stating that their disabled child allowance was canceled under the claim of what was defined as erroneous information. Sources familiar with the matter noted that the number of children whose allowances were canceled as part of the affair dubbed Wunderkind is estimated in the thousands, and within its framework suspects were arrested in the Jerusalem and Center areas. At the National Insurance they deny, and claim that it is a matter of only 400 cases.
The estimated value of the canceled allowances is estimated at tens of millions of shekels a month in total. It should be noted that in discussions in the labor courts, representatives of the National Insurance claimed that the affair is shielded under a gag order. However, the Israel Police confirmed to Globes that there is no gag order, and stated: A professional and thorough investigation was carried out, during which several suspects were questioned, and at its end the findings of the investigation were transferred for review and decision by the prosecution.
An investigation published on the Shavim website in February 2026 revealed that the National Insurance decision to cancel the allowances was made without the institution providing proof in each and every case. The National Insurance executed the move as part of regulation 17 of the National Insurance regulations, which allows the institution to immediately freeze the payment of an allowance.
Since December, dozens of files have reached the doorstep of the labor courts and dozens of children have already received their allowance back. Judge Daniel Goldberg of the Regional Labor Court in Jerusalem ruled in one of the cases that the use of regulation 17 by the National Insurance is impossible, since proofs leading to the decision were not provided. The ruling determined that the National Insurance was obligated to act according to regulation 7, which relates to recipients of a disabled child allowance and not to a general allowance like in regulation 17, where the National Insurance can warn and obligate families to provide evidence, and only after examination will it be decided whether to cancel the allowance.
After 700 inquiries we received, we stopped counting, told Globes attorney Shimon Atias, who handles dozens of children whose allowance was canceled. There are always cheaters and there will always be bad apples. Attorney Eran Cohen, who joined Atias and also handles the discussed cases, added: I see this as a personal war to return the allowance to these children. A child who does not receive an allowance ultimately does not undergo treatments and this is a direct harm to the child themselves.
The Black List
That same black list of diagnosticians held by the National Insurance was not exposed to the public. An administrative authority needs to be transparent and give all the information to the public. They are failing people, said Atias. Cohen adds: In my opinion, they do not have evidence and they are exposed to a lawsuit from those diagnosticians if they publish it.
How many will actually manage to get their allowance back? Let's say there will be 800 out of thousands of children. A significant portion of these families are low-income families, some cannot hire a lawyer or this is an ultra-orthodox population that does not know what the National Insurance website is, Atias concluded.
Attorney Eitan Peleg also deals with quite a few files of children whose allowance was canceled in December. To say that everyone forged is like me saying that all medical committees are forged, Peleg attacked. Whoever is caught and proven to have cheated must be punished with all his might, but I demand to present evidence regarding each and every child. It is strictly forbidden to touch a child who was diagnosed lawfully, and in my opinion, the extents of the cheating are much smaller than what the National Insurance presented. In my eyes, the forgery and fraud affair is a light blow to the wing for the National Insurance. But they see this in it as a justification to tighten the policy, the attorney explained.
The Secret Internal Procedure
Pelegs intention in tightening the policy, according to him, lies in an internal procedure called Red Lights. According to him, until three years ago, anyone who submitted diagnoses lawfully, both institutional and private, the National Insurance would approve it almost automatically, according to the instructions of CEO circulars of the National Insurance and the Ministry of Health, except in exceptional cases.
However, three years ago a turnaround occurred. Doctors in the committees of the National Insurance began noting concepts like according to regulations or according to guidelines, says attorney Peleg. On one hand there are private diagnoses that arrived from the parents and on the other hand an institutional diagnosis. Doctors began writing that there is a need to give preference to the institutional diagnosis.
It should be noted that in the official circulars there is no reference at all to a preference of an institutional diagnosis over private diagnoses. Peleg noticed that the phenomenon repeats itself and began digging. In the first stage, children began to be summoned to committees of the National Insurance. Until three years ago there was almost no such thing, Peleg explained. Today, almost everyone is summoned to a committee.
In the second stage, until the change, only in exceptional cases would children be referred to a diagnostician of the National Insurance Institute. Today, this has become almost common knowledge. The third stage is the diagnosis by a diagnostician in the National Insurance. A situation that repeats itself is that when there is a private diagnosis vis--vis a diagnosis of the National Insurance diagnostician, the opinion of the National Insurance is preferred, Peleg claims. There were also cases where autism was determined for children with institutional diagnoses only, but the National Insurance demanded that a diagnostician on their behalf examine the child, and it canceled diagnoses.
A List of Diagnosticians Exists
After in July Judge Tal Golan of the Regional Labor Court in Haifa received the procedure for his eyes only, in August he issued a decision approving for the first time the existence of the Red Lights procedure.
The National Insurance stated in response: There is no basis for the claims. In December 2025, the National Insurance froze allowance payments in 400 cases, where a suspicion arose that the documents on which the entitlement was based are not authentic. Beyond that, from the moment the payment was frozen it was clarified that new documents can be submitted, and they will be examined accordingly. Also the term black list does not exist in the National Insurance and does not reflect reality. There exists a list of diagnosticians regarding whom a suspicion arose, which was transferred to the Ministry of Health - the body entrusted with licensing doctors and their fitness. Regarding the Red Lights procedure, this is an internal work procedure, subject to privacy protection, and therefore we cannot elaborate on it publicly.
The Ministry of Health stated: The ministry maintains ongoing contact with the National Insurance Institute when questions arise regarding the quality or reliability of diagnoses. In cases of suspicion of criminal conduct, the handling is transferred to law enforcement agencies and in cases of fear of improper professional conduct one can turn to the relevant ethics committees. When a suspicion arises that a professional is not authorized to perform a diagnosis, or is not acting in accordance with professional rules, the ministry acts in accordance with its powers, including professional clarification and updating the relevant parties.
