The government has agreed to save about €170 million by 2024, Riisalo told ERR.

"We haven't agreed where one or the other ministry will find and make these cuts from, so it's up to each minister to decide. For the Ministry of Social Affairs as a whole, there are cuts of a little over €10 million, which is not quite proportional between the two ministers but it is in proportion to the budgets between us and the Ministry of Health," she said.

Riisalo said the Social Insurance Institution (SKA) will account for about a third of the savings in the Social Protection Ministry because it spends a large part of its budget there.

"There are almost €4.5 billion in my budget through the SKA, so the savings to be made there are actually still a negligible fraction," the minister said.

She added that the agreements concern money to be saved this year and should be finalized by Wednesday of next week, but these cuts will not be carried over as such into next year. So the upcoming negotiations on the national budget strategy in August and September will require decisive actions.

Director General of the Social Insurance Board (SKA) Maret Maripuu announced in a letter to staff this week that €1.27 million is to be cut from social services, with cuts likely to affect areas such as children's rehabilitation, special care, family placement, improving competence in substitute care, children's homes, respite care, counseling to stop violence and access to psycho-social crisis support.

Riisalo said that in the letter, the head of the SKA simply listed all the state-funded services and that there was a choice between them.

"Since SKA itself plans its budget during the state budget process, and we are now halfway through the year – but we never know how many people with one or another characteristic we will have in a given year and how many of them will want to receive the service – we also have a pretty clear idea at the halfway point of the year where we might have a surplus at the end of the year," she said.

So, according to Riisalo, people who receive services through the SKA this year should not have to worry about missing out on them, and at the same time.

"We never know how large the target group will be, how many levels of disability will be identified, how many will want to receive the service, and so on. So there's always some leeway," the minister said, adding that there was little risk that the number of people in need would be higher than the SKA could handle.

Riisalo confirmed that all agencies in his area of government had been informed of the cuts some time ago.

In addition to the SKA, the cuts will also affect the Ministry of Social Affairs itself. The cuts concern personnel and economic costs, and IT developments that would not have been possible for objective reasons will be postponed.

There are also plans to save on staff costs, but Riisalo said there would be no layoffs for the time being.

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