Welfare Ministry Fights for Survival Amidst Budget Cuts
Translated & summarized from Ynet by baba
The Israeli Ministry of Welfare is urgently appealing to the Ministry of Finance to be exempted from a 140 million shekel budget cut, warning it will severely impact vulnerable populations. The cut is part of a larger 2.6 billion shekel reduction for urgent defense procurement. This follows previous cuts, bringing the total reduction from the Welfare Ministry's budget to approximately 450 million shekels since the start of the year, hindering its ability to fund essential services and new programs.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- The Welfare Ministry is seeking an exemption from a 140 million shekel budget cut.
- The cut is part of a larger 2.6 billion shekel reduction for urgent defense procurement.
- The ministry warns the cuts will severely impact services for vulnerable populations.
- Affected services include programs for victims of violence and people with disabilities.
- This cut follows a previous 90 million shekel reduction in March for war expenses.
- Total cuts to the ministry's budget have reached approximately 450 million shekels.
The Ministry of Welfare has sent an urgent appeal to the Ministry of Finance, requesting an exemption from the planned across-the-board budget cuts affecting all government ministries in the coming weeks, before the end of the fiscal year. A senior official at the Welfare Ministry told Ynet that the proposed cuts would amount to approximately 140 million shekels from the ministry's budget, potentially causing severe damage to essential social services. "This would be a fatal blow to the ministry's ability to provide services to the most vulnerable populations in Israel," the official stated.
The government is set to approve a 2.6 billion shekel budget cut for "urgent defense procurement." This cut follows a previous reduction of about 1 billion shekels allocated for the purchase of 12 Apache helicopters from the United States. The new reduction will impact roughly 4% of the flexible budget of government ministries, excluding funds for salaries and fixed state obligations, thereby affecting future programs.
Unlike the previous cut, which largely impacted a five-year plan for the Arab community, this new reduction will be applied across all ministries. For the Ministry of Welfare, this means potential harm to new programs for women victims of violence, new services for women in prostitution, and services planned for individuals with disabilities under the Law on Welfare Services for Persons with Disabilities.
This is not the first such cut; in March, a 3% reduction of the Welfare Ministry's flexible budget, approximately 90 million shekels, was made to fund war expenses. These cuts, combined with previous reductions, have accumulated to about 450 million shekels from the 2026 budget. The ministry's capacity to develop programs was already limited, with nearly half of its original budget for new services earmarked for developing services for people with disabilities, a legal obligation. The series of cuts effectively imposes a near-total freeze on the ministry's ability to address the growing needs of the population, exacerbated by the ongoing war.
