Welfare Ministry fights for survival: "The cut will fatally harm the weakest populations"

The Welfare Ministry has urgently asked the Finance Ministry to exempt it from the planned across-the-board cut of 2.6 billion shekels in all government ministries. The expected cut to the Welfare Ministry amounts to about 140 million shekels, and according to a senior ministry official, it will fatally harm services for the most vulnerable populations, including women in prostitution, victims of violence, and people with disabilities.

The Welfare Ministry sent an urgent appeal Thursday evening to the Finance Ministry, requesting an exemption from the planned across-the-board cut in all government ministries in the coming weeks. The 2.6 billion shekel across-the-board cut, intended for "urgent defense procurement," follows a cut of about one billion shekels already approved for the purchase of 12 Apache helicopters from the US. A senior Welfare Ministry official told ynet that the expected cut to his ministry will total about 140 million shekels and will directly harm essential social services: "This will be a fatal blow to the ministry's ability to provide services to the most vulnerable populations in Israel." The additional cut will apply to about 4% of the flexible budget of government ministries. In the case of the Welfare Ministry, this includes, among other things, opening new frameworks for women victims of violence, new services planned for women in prostitution, and harm to services planned for people with disabilities. In March of this year, an across-the-board cut of 3% of the ministry's flexible budget was also implemented — about 90 million shekels — joining a series of cuts that accumulated to about 450 million shekels in the 2026 budget. The ministry's room for maneuver was limited even before the series of cuts, since out of about one billion shekels it originally received for new services, nearly 500 million are designated for developing services for people with disabilities under a 2022 law. The series of cuts imposes almost complete stagnation on the ministry's ability to develop responses to the growing needs of the population.