If you were disabled in IDF or security-forces service, the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Division pays for adapting your home, installing a lift or stair lift, and several yearly housing grants; if you were injured in a terror attack or at work, Bituach Leumi (National Insurance) pays the parallel grants. The rule that matters most is timing: apply and get written approval before any work starts, because the Defense Ministry will not reimburse work you began or committed to before the district approved the quote. On the Rehabilitation Division’s site, checked on 29 October 2026, the home-adaptation grant is up to ILS 46,922 for a 20% to 49% disability and up to ILS 58,990 from 50% (or from 35% for a leg, head or mental injury, including post-trauma), and the lift grant is up to ILS 127,933.
The Defense Ministry body is the Rehabilitation Division (אגף השיקום, Agaf HaShikum). It handles everything through its district welfare departments and the personal area on its website. Bituach Leumi runs its own pages, criteria and amounts for victims of hostile action (terror victims) and for work-injury victims, so check the route that recognised your disability before you plan anything. In every route the approval comes first and the contractor comes second.
Family bereavement is a different entitlement category from an injured person’s adaptations. See housing assistance for bereaved families and orphans for the separate National Insurance route.
Which grant fits your situation
The table compares the Defense Ministry grants for disabled IDF and security-forces veterans. Terror victims and work-injury victims have parallel routes at Bituach Leumi, covered further down.
| Grant | Who qualifies | Maximum | How often | How you get it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home adaptation (התאמת דירה, hatamat dira) | Recognised disability of 20% or more (10% or more if recognised by 31 December 1995) | ILS 46,922 (20% to 49%); ILS 58,990 (50% or more, or 35% or more for a leg, head or mental injury) | Once; again if your function worsens | Apply first, occupational therapist visit, two quotes, district approval, then reimbursement against receipts |
| Lift, platform lift (מעלון, ma’alon), stair crawler or stair lift | 35% or more for a lower-limb injury, or 50% or more for any injury | ILS 127,933 | Again when the device wears out and goes out of use | Apply on the housing-assistance form before the work; paid directly to the supplier |
| Annual lift insurance | Anyone eligible for the lift grant, even if they did not use it | 75% of the yearly premium, including the engineer’s inspection, up to ILS 7,090 a year | Every year | Send the first year’s receipt; after that it is paid automatically |
| Elevator grant | 80% or more for paraplegia, or 60% or more for hemiplegia, living in an apartment building with an elevator | ILS 66 a year | Every year | Through the district welfare department |
| Home upkeep (מענק אחזקת דירה, ma’anak achzakat dira) | Special 100%+ degree, living in a home you own or rent from the Defense Ministry | ILS 6,046 (owned) to ILS 17,768 (house, paralysis or double amputation) | Every year | Automatic, with the July compensation payment |
| Electric parking gate | Special 100%+ degree for a head injury, paraplegia or quadriplegia, loss of both legs, or loss of an arm and a leg, with a ground-attached house | 75% of the cost, up to ILS 7,090 | Once every 10 years | Check eligibility with the district welfare worker, pay, then claim with a tax invoice and receipt |
| Solar water heater and collectors | Special 100%+ degree, any injury | ILS 1,966 for the heater, ILS 1,747 for the collectors | Once every 10 years | Reimbursement after a tax invoice and receipt |
| Summer cooling (דמי קירור, dmei kirur) | Four levels by degree, injury and place of residence | ILS 646 to ILS 4,329 | Every year | Automatic, with the May compensation payment |
| Home renovation loan (a loan, not a grant) | Permanent disability of 20% or more, for structural work | ILS 243,310; ILS 315,550 at a 100%+ degree | Once every 10 years | Approval in principle first, then a receipt for 10% of the loan |
Source: Defense Ministry Rehabilitation Division, housing pages and annual grants pages, checked 29 Oct 2026. Amounts are updated during the year (for example, cooling in May and upkeep in July), so confirm the current figure with your district.
Home adaptation grant: who qualifies and which home
The adaptation grant pays toward changes your recognised injury makes necessary: wider corridors and doorways for a wheelchair, an adapted bathroom or kitchen, ramps, and aids for stairs. You need a recognised disability of at least 20%, or at least 10% if the injury was recognised by 31 December 1995. The grant is one-time, but if your function worsens and the home needs more changes, you can ask the district to consider a second grant. Adaptation assistance can sometimes accompany other housing assistance, but combination rules depend on the route. Obtain a written decision before adding it to a purchase or replacement budget, particularly where extensive adaptations are proposed.
The home can be one you own, one your parents own, a kibbutz home, public housing or a protected tenancy. An ordinary rented home qualifies only in two cases:
- Disability of 20% or more: a long lease of at least four years, a lease with an option to extend for at least three years, or the landlord’s written agreement to a long lease. The landlord must agree to the changes, the changes must be written into the lease, and there is no grant to restore the flat when you leave.
- Special 100%+ degree for paralysis with wheelchair use: you need an option to extend the lease by at least one more year, and if the landlord requires it, an extra grant of up to ILS 33,352 restores the flat at the end of the lease.
If you have to move to another rented flat, the district welfare department can approve adapting the next one too. If the approved adaptation costs more than the ceiling, ask the district to check whether the full amount can be covered.
Adapting your parents’ home
Veterans with a special 100%+ degree for paralysis who use a wheelchair have two extra options. If you live in a home your parents own, the adaptation grant can reach ILS 338,246, provided you commit to live with them for at least two years. If you live elsewhere, up to ILS 33,352 adapts your parents’ home for visits. On the housing-assistance form you also declare that you will not receive rent assistance for at least two years, and you undertake to tell your parents that the ministry will not pay to restore their home to its previous state.
How the adaptation process works
- Apply. Contact the welfare department in your district through the personal area, or send the adaptation request. The district calls you for details. Do not start work or sign any commitment yet.
- Occupational therapist visit. A therapist visits within a few days by appointment, checks what you need and writes a report listing the changes. The district sends the report to your personal area.
- Choose a contractor and send quotes. You pick the contractor. Send two quotes that itemise the changes in the therapist’s report, with the contractors’ certificates. Quotes above ILS 50,000 must come from contractors listed in the Housing Ministry’s register of contractors; quotes up to that amount can come from any licensed dealer (osek murshe). If you cannot get two quotes, one is possible, but the district then sends it to the Defense Ministry’s construction engineer for approval.
- Approval, then work. Start the work and pay the contractor only after the district approves one of the quotes. On the form you undertake to carry out the adaptation as the professionals instructed.
- Receipts and reimbursement. Upload the receipts to the district welfare department through the personal area, either one receipt at the end or several as the work progresses. The grant is paid as a reimbursement against those receipts.
Directive 62.12 of the Rehabilitation Division lets you appeal a decision of the district welfare officer once, to the district committee, which can raise the assistance by up to 20% more. Cases that need more than that go up to the head of the compensation and benefits unit, the head of the division or the advisory committee.
A lift or stair lift in an apartment building
The lift grant covers an elevator, a platform lift, a stair crawler or a stair lift when your recognised injury makes one part of adapting the home. You qualify with 35% or more for an injury to the lower limbs, or 50% or more for any injury. The grant follows the type of project and the quotes, up to ILS 127,933, and it can be given again when the device wears out and goes out of use. Directive 62.12 also allows an upgrade you choose yourself, for example an elevator instead of a platform lift, but the grant stays at the ceiling for the device you were assessed as needing.
Apply on the housing-assistance form before any work. An occupational therapist visits to assess the need. For a platform lift, stair crawler or stair lift, you are referred to a suitable company, which demonstrates the device in your home; for an elevator you usually send two detailed quotes, and some installations need a building permit. The Rehabilitation Division then confirms the chosen supplier and pays it directly against its invoice. If you paid yourself for some reason, you can be reimbursed with a tax invoice and receipt.
In a building with shared property (בית משותף, bayit meshutaf) you also need:
- a building permit from the local planning and building committee;
- a letter from the residents’ committee (ועד בית, va’ad bayit) agreeing to the project, stating how many residents live in the building and how the cost is split between them;
- under directive 62.12, a copy of the residents’ general-meeting decision approving the installation and a quote setting out the total cost and the work.
The Rehabilitation Division’s share never exceeds your proportional share of the project by the number of residents. Getting neighbours to agree is a separate legal question: our guide to elevator retrofits and stairs explains the owners’ majority and who pays installation and maintenance under the Land Law, and our page on va’ad bayit fees covers the monthly building charges.
Eligibility for the lift grant also gives you a yearly refund of 75% of the device’s insurance, including the engineer’s inspection, up to ILS 7,090 a year, even if you never used the installation grant. You send the receipt in the first year and the refund then continues automatically. Separately, veterans with 80% or more for paraplegia or 60% or more for hemiplegia who live in an apartment building with an elevator receive an elevator grant of ILS 66 a year.
For buying or replacing a home rather than adapting it, compare the injured-person housing loan routes, including the separate National Insurance mortgage-relief category.
Buying, renting or moving with these grants
These grants change which homes make sense. A ground-floor flat, a building that already has an elevator, or a ground-attached house (בית צמוד קרקע, bayit tzamud karka) can save months of adaptation work, and the type of home also decides how much upkeep grant you receive.
| Your injury | Your home | Grant per year |
|---|---|---|
| Any injury | Flat or house you own | ILS 6,046 |
| Any injury | Flat or house rented from the Defense Ministry | ILS 12,091 |
| Paralysis, loss of both legs or loss of both arms | Flat in an apartment building | ILS 12,091 |
| Paralysis, loss of both legs or loss of both arms | Garden or roof flat | ILS 14,138 |
| Paralysis, loss of both legs or loss of both arms | Ground-attached house | ILS 17,768 |
Source: Defense Ministry Rehabilitation Division, home upkeep grant, checked 29 Oct 2026. The enhanced amounts apply whether you own the home or rent it from the Defense Ministry.
- Upkeep timing after a purchase: for a new home bought first-hand, payment starts two years after you move in; for a second-hand home, it starts the year after you move in. If your degree is raised to 100%+ while you already own the home, payment starts the year after the medical committee’s decision. Under directive 62.13, an unmarried veteran in long-term hospitalisation is not eligible, and an existing payment stops.
- Electric gate: only for veterans who build, buy or already own a ground-attached house and install the gate at its parking.
- Lift instead of moving: directive 62.12 treats the lift grant as an alternative to help with replacing your home, so compare both before you decide whether to adapt or sell and buy.
- Renovation loan: the loan is for structural work such as an addition or a higher standard, not décor or appliances. It is repaid from your monthly compensation, needs one or two guarantors, and if you also get an adaptation grant, the loan and grant together cannot exceed the full cost of the renovation.
One Defense Ministry form, the request for housing assistance (בקשה לסיוע בדיור), covers rent assistance, home adaptation, replacing a home, building a house, buying a first home, renovation and a loan for first furnishing. Complete the income section accurately. A housing loan also involves repayment-capacity checks, and the amount approved may be below the maximum entitlement; do not treat the form as a guarantee of funding. For a purchase you attach the purchase contract, the sale agreement if you are replacing a home, the bank’s approval in principle if you take a mortgage, and for a developer purchase a receipt or a lawyer’s confirmation of the first payment. Disabled buyers can also qualify for purchase tax relief: our guide to purchase tax relief for disabled and bereaved buyers explains who counts.
Cooling grant: where you live matters
The cooling grant helps with summer air-conditioning costs and is paid automatically every year with the May compensation payment. Eligibility and the level are set by the data correct for May, and for the first level the place you live decides whether you get it at all.
| Level | Who qualifies | Grant per year |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 50% to 100% disability and living in a hot area; or 100% for chronic kidney failure anywhere; or an air conditioner funded by the Defense Ministry for medical reasons | ILS 646 |
| Level 2 | Special 100%+ degree (other than quadriplegia or paraplegia); 50% or more for an arm plus 50% or more for a leg, each for one item; or 30% or more for burns; anywhere in Israel | ILS 1,291 |
| Level 3 | Special 100%+ degree for quadriplegia, anywhere | ILS 4,329 |
| Level 4 | Special 100%+ degree for paraplegia, anywhere | ILS 1,983 |
Source: Defense Ministry Rehabilitation Division, annual cooling grant, checked 29 Oct 2026.
The hot areas are Kiryat Gat and everything south of it, the Jordan Valley (Emek HaYarden, including communities on the shore of the Kinneret), the Jordan Rift (Bik’at HaYarden), the Beit She’an Valley and the Jezreel Valley. A veteran at 50% to 100% who moves to Be’er Sheva or the Jezreel Valley gains the level 1 grant; one who moves from there to the centre loses it. Our guide to Negev communities for olim compares the towns south of Kiryat Gat.
If you qualify before May, you get the full grant with the May payment. If you qualify later in the season, after a move or a change in your degree, the first payment is the grant divided by five and multiplied by the months left until September. Keep your address up to date in the personal area. No cooling grant is paid to an unmarried veteran hospitalised for six months or more, to someone living in Defense Ministry-funded sheltered housing, or to someone living permanently outside Israel. A separate heating grant is paid automatically with the November compensation payment.
Terror victims: the Bituach Leumi route
Victims of hostile action are recognised and paid by Bituach Leumi, not by the Defense Ministry, and its pages set their own criteria. For a lift, NII lists the same threshold as the Defense Ministry (35% or more for a leg injury, or 50% or more for any injury) and the same extra documents for a shared building: a building permit and a va’ad bayit letter with the number of residents and the cost split. Its other housing pages describe:
- Lift insurance: 75% of the yearly premium for victims with a special 100% degree for paraplegia or quadriplegia who use a wheelchair, claimed at the handling branch with a tax invoice and receipt.
- Home upkeep: a yearly grant for a special 100% degree in the listed injury types, for victims who have lived two years or more in a home they own or rent from Bituach Leumi, paid with the July payment.
- Cooling: a yearly grant from 50% disability, set by level, place of residence and injury, paid automatically in May.
- Electric gate and elevator grant: listed as separate benefits, with their own conditions.
Because NII’s figures and lists of injuries do not always match the Defense Ministry’s, ask the rehabilitation department at your branch for the current amount before you commit to work, and get its approval first.
Household equipment for recognised victims of hostile action
NII’s household-equipment benefit is separate from structural adaptation and from the Health Ministry rehabilitation basket. Its annual route applies from 20 % recognised hostile-action disability, with automatic payment alongside the March benefit.
A different appliance-purchase route covers qualifying recipients with 10 % to 19 % disability who were injured before 1996 and receive a monthly benefit. NII lists a recipient who was unmarried at the first disability assessment, married later and bought after marriage, or a lone parent. In either case, no previous reimbursement for the listed appliances may have been received. The listed items are a refrigerator, washing machine, television and cooking/baking oven. Apply through the hostile-action department with an original receipt in the eligible person’s name identifying the product.
Confirm the current amount and the applicable route with NII before budgeting. A disability percentage alone does not establish eligibility for every equipment benefit.
Work-injury victims: the Bituach Leumi special grant
Someone injured at work can claim a one-time special grant for adapting housing conditions and for assistive devices if their stable disability is 75% or more, or 65% to 74% with walking difficulty confirmed by the NII doctor. You must be in Israel, and NII must approve your plan for using the grant before it pays.
Source: Bituach Leumi, grant for one-time arrangements for work-injury victims, checked 29 Oct 2026.
The grant follows the actual cost of the approved plan, up to these ceilings. Claim at the rehabilitation department of your nearest branch on the claim form for a grant (BL/282), with a detailed plan and the supporting documents; you can also send it through the NII document-upload service. NII may pay only part of the grant until it is satisfied the money is used as approved. If it is not, NII can withhold the balance, ask for the money back or offset it against any benefit, and it can work out a changed or alternative plan with you and supervise it.
If you do not qualify for these grants
People with limited mobility who are not covered by the Defense Ministry or Bituach Leumi can apply to the Housing Ministry’s home-adaptation programme, which pays a loan or a loan with a grant. That programme excludes anyone who has received adaptation help from the Defense Ministry or NII, and lists the documents each group must bring to prove they were refused there. Our guide to housing options for disabled seniors in Israel walks through it.
Contacts
- Defense Ministry Rehabilitation Division: call centre *8150 or 03-7776777 (the housing form gives Sunday to Thursday, 8:00 to 18:00), the personal area at myshikum.mod.gov.il, and the district welfare department for housing questions.
- Bituach Leumi: *6050, or the rehabilitation department at your branch for terror-victim and work-injury grants.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice; confirm with a licensed professional.
Sources
- Defense Ministry Rehabilitation Division, home adaptation grant, grant for an elevator, platform lift, stair crawler or stair lift, solar water heater and electric parking gate, home renovation loan, home upkeep grant and cooling grant, checked 29 October 2026.
- Rehabilitation Division directives 62.12, grant to adapt a home to a disabled person’s limitations (19 April 2023), 62.13, housing-related benefits for a 100%+ special degree (30 April 2023) and 80.27, cooling grant (8 June 2020). Amounts in their appendices are older than the website figures above.
- Defense Ministry, request for housing assistance form.
- Bituach Leumi, grants and benefits for victims of hostile action, including the pages on housing assistance, lift insurance and cooling, checked 29 October 2026.
- Bituach Leumi, benefits for work-injury victims with a high disability degree, checked 29 October 2026.
Looking for a ground-floor flat, a building with an elevator or a ground-attached house that suits your grant? Send us your budget, the cities you are considering, whether you want to rent or buy and the access you need, and we will search homes that fit before you sign, so the adaptation and lift approvals can start on the right property.
