Being a lone soldier is hard, but the IDF does what it can to make life a little easier. A lone soldier (Chayal Boded) is a soldier with no familial support in Israel. This can be for a variety of reason – an immigrant who moved to Israel without their family, a soldier whose parents moved away from Israel, an orphan, or someone who is not in contact with their parents for different reasons. These soldiers are totally independent. Many soldiers come home from base on a Friday morning and need to do all the things a parent would normally do on the weekend home – laundry, grocery shopping, cooking Shabbat dinner, etc.
The army realizes all the hardships a lone soldier must overcome, and provides different pillars of support to make their army service a bit smoother. The biggest and most helpful benefit is the salary they receive. A lone soldier will receive a 150% salary of someone in the same position, giving them extra money to live. Additionally, a lone soldier gets 150 nis per month to be used at a supermarket chain to buy anything they need, predominantly groceries but it can be used for anything from the store.
The army offers lone soldiers four different living options, from which the soldier can choose which they prefer. They can live on a kibbutz, in an army owned apartment, in a “soldier house” (a dorm style living), or in a rented apartment. While living on a kibbutz and in an army owned apartment all of the expenses are covered except for meals, a soldier will not need to pay any of the bills. In the soldier house, breakfast and dinner are included as well, with no bills being paid here either. Each of these three options are offered in a variety of regions and cities all over the country, but not every city. For a rented apartment, the soldier will be responsible for finding a place and signing a lease. Soldiers are given 1,300 nis a month that goes towards rent and utilities. The apartment can be located anywhere in the country.
Depending on amount of time in the army, the soldier will get a day off a month or every two months to take care of any errands they have to run. The day off is mandatory within the period of time allotted to that soldier, and there is no way an officer can make a soldier miss it. These days are helpful for soldiers who need to go to the bank, deal with their phone company, get a passport or driver’s license, or anything of the sort.
A lone soldier will also receive extra money when they are not on their base for more than 3 days at a time. This practice was put in place in order to cover the expenses of meals that the soldier would normally have covered if he/she was on base. Lone soldiers also receive discounts on bills throughout the cities they live in, i.e. water bills, electric bills, city tax, etc.
A lone soldier who has moved away from their home in order to draft have additional benefits as well. Each year of service, a lone soldier is given a month vacation to visit his/her family in their home country. This month is on top of the vacation days normal soldiers are allotted. During the second year of service, FIDF (Friends of the IDF) fully subsidizes the cost of the flight.
Additional benefits include: assistance moving to a new apartment, ease of receiving a work permit (a permit needed for soldiers to have an additional job during their army service), travel in an emergency abroad, availability to stay at a soldier house for free when needed, gifts from the army and certain units for both Passover and Rosh Hashana, and many more. The government has many additional benefits available for lone soldiers.
To find out more about lone soldier benefits and who is eligible, check out https://www.nbn.org.il/aliyahpedia/army-national-service/pre-draft/chayal-boded-lone-soldier-benefits/
