A government regulation, which has just received final approval from the Federal Council, extends to residents of Israel certain old age and invalidity insurance benefits they accumulated while employed in parts of Germany out side the present territory of the West German Federal Republic.
Beneficiaries of the new regulation are mainly Jews who held sales and office positions in what is now East Germany or Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia. If they have contributed the mandatory premiums to the official Employes Insurance Fund and to the Invalidity Insurance Fund, they qualify for a pension. The premiums involved were automatically deducted from all but the highest salaries.
Whereas these old age and invalidity pensions have long been paid to present or former residents of West Germany, one-time inhabitants of German provinces outside the area of the Federal Republic were rendered eligible only a few years ago. At the time a legal proviso was included to the effect that applicants must be domiciled in West Germany or in countries with which Bonn maintains diplomatic relations.
Since no formal diplomatic relations exist between Bonn and Israel, it was necessary to pass the new regulation so as to put Israelis on the same footing as residents of all other countries outside the Soviet bloc.
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