Until the body allows: no pension — continuing to work even at age 75

At 6:00 PM, when her peers are already finishing their day, Dorit leaves her home in the north and travels to work in the center area. She works five nights a week in security and returns home only around 5:00 AM. "Night work at age 66 is not like at age 20 or 30," she says. "I work only at night because it is my only way to make a living. It is very hard for me to survive. There are things I deny myself, and I try to put money aside for months when there are many holidays and vacation days, during which I will receive only 5,000 or 6,000 shekels. It is almost impossible to live on such an amount."

Dorit is not alone. The employment rate of older Israelis is among the highest in developed countries. According to data from the Shoresh Institution, about 28% of men and about 15% of women in Israel over the age of 65 continue to work, compared to about 21% and 11%, respectively, on average in OECD countries. Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics' labor force survey shows that in 2024, 39.8 thousand people aged 75 and over were part of the labor force in the market. Behind the data are many senior citizens who do not continue to work by choice, but because the allowance and pension they accumulated are not enough for living. Many of them worked for years before the mandatory pension order came into effect in 2008, others withdrew the pension funds they had accumulated in the past, and now they reach retirement age without a sufficient safety net.

On September 1st, Tzipi will return to sit behind the wheel. She is 74, lives in Yavne, and works as a minibus driver for school transport. Last year she underwent surgery to replace her right joint, and now she is recovering from surgery to replace her left knee joint. She knows she hasn't had enough time to recover and that driving will be difficult - but she has no option to stay home. "It's very hard for me, but I have no choice. On 1.9 I must go out to work, even though I haven't recovered yet," she says. "This is physical work, I drive and it's not simple." Over the years she worked in various places, including eight years at Egged, but some employers did not make pension contributions for her at all, because at that time the law did not yet require it. "At Egged they deposited the minimum possible. Everything I had from all the jobs I worked amounted to about 50 thousand shekels. I took the money out and put it in the bank." Today she receives about 2,500 shekels a month from the National Insurance Institute and earns about 7,000 shekels from her work in transport. This salary, which does not allow her to age with dignity, is the reason why at age 74, after two surgeries, she will get back on the road. "If I don't work, I won't have anything to eat," she says. "When the old-age pension increases, maybe I won't have to work."

Dorit returned to Israel about two years ago, after seven years abroad. Over the years she worked in various workplaces, but according to her some of them closed, she withdrew some of the savings, and she finds it difficult to track down other money that was supposed to be accumulated for her today. "We were in the transition generation between manual paperwork and the digital world," she says. "We didn't know where the money was and how to manage a pension. If the information and awareness that exist today had existed then, I have no doubt that I would be in a different place. The salaries were also very low, so the contributions were meager." Today she usually earns between 10,000 and 11,000 shekels gross, but in months when there are fewer working days her income can drop to about 6,000 shekels. According to her, after she crossed the income threshold set by the National Insurance Institute, the senior citizen allowance she received was cut from about 2,750 shekels to about 400 shekels. "I dared to earn another 400 shekels - and the allowance was offset," she says. "I pay 3,600 shekels in rent and I don't own an apartment. On one hand I want to work more as long as I am healthy, and on the other hand they reduce my allowance. That's how they keep a person in poverty."

According to the National Insurance Institute, until age 70, eligibility for a senior citizen allowance is subject to an income test from work. As of 2026, someone who does not have a spouse and whose income from work is lower than 10,113 shekels may be eligible for a full allowance. But above this amount the allowance may be partial or denied completely, depending on the income and the insurance period accumulated. From age 70, eligibility for the allowance is not conditional on an income test.

"If I wasn't obligated, I wouldn't work." Mordechai, a 75-year-old divorcee from the Krayot, works in a factory for electrode production and earns minimum wage. He receives a monthly pension of only about 900 shekels, after having withdrawn part of the funds he accumulated in the past. "I worked for 13 years and that's the amount that came out," he says. "I didn't track the pension contributions then. Today, with the salary, I manage to get by - but I must work. The apartment I live in is not mine and the work at the factory is physical and hard. If I wasn't obligated to work, I surely wouldn't continue."

Dorit, Tzipi, and Mordechai present a difficult reality. Senior citizens who worked for decades, but reached retirement age without an income that would allow them to age with dignity. For them, retirement is not a stage in life - but an economic option that is not available to them. Dorit asks to establish a higher safety net: "The senior citizen allowance for those who have no pension at all must be raised towards the minimum wage. It is impossible to live today on 2,700 shekels, and in practice it is very hard to live even on 6,500. People don't work at these ages because they are bored. They work because they have no choice."

Yekutiel Meshi, Director of Policy Advancement and Government Relations at the 121 Association: "Israel is at the top of the developed countries in the rate of senior citizens who continue to work after retirement age. Work at an older age can be a positive thing for those who choose it, but many senior citizens continue to work not out of choice, but out of economic need. About half of the senior citizens in Israel have no pension at all or have a low pension, and almost 40 thousand people aged 75 and over are still in the labor force." He added: "Many of them worked for years even before the mandatory pension came into effect in 2008, and therefore reached retirement age without pension savings that allow them to exist with dignity. The state cannot accept a situation where a person who worked all his life is forced to continue working even at age 70 and 75 just to make ends meet. We need to increase the old-age pension for those who have no pension or have a low pension, and build a safety net that will allow every senior citizen to age with dignity."