The deficit of welfare regions is already close to half a billion cuts in other expenses.
of HS according to the data, the deficit of the welfare regions is larger than previously calculated. Consequently, the need for government spending cuts also increases.
According to recently completed calculations, last year's loss of the welfare regions, which manage social and health services, for example, has risen to around 1.35 billion euros.
It may become more specific during the spring. In the fall, the estimate was 1.2 and at the beginning of the year 1.3 billion.
Even if the welfare regions' deficit would remain at 1.35 billion from last year, due to inflation adjustments and other agreed ex-post corrections, the state will have to compensate the regions with these prospects closer to 1.5 billion euros.
The government is scheduled to report on the calculations on Wednesday.
The government has promised to pay the losses of the welfare areas, but it has set aside only one billion euros for this.
The increase in the deficit also means more pressure to make savings in health and social services.
Only due to the losses in the welfare areas, the government needs to cut, for example, from services and benefits for people or other government spending by close to half a billion euros more, in order to keep its promise not to exceed the so-called government spending frameworks in 2025.
Government agreed last spring that if expenses increase, it will look for savings elsewhere.
Expenditures are kept under control with the framework, and according to the framework agreement, taxes and other additional revenues cannot compensate for increasing expenditures.
Frame cuts in addition, the government needs to make more savings and cancel planned expenditures, so that the government can reach the debt targets it has decided itself and the EU demands. To fix the government's indebtedness problem, the government can also raise taxes.
According to the Ministry of Finance, with these prospects, Finland will avoid the EU's deficit procedure, i.e. falling into the so-called monitoring category, if it cuts expenses and increases income by around three billion euros.
The debate about savings has begun, and the government will make the final decisions on April 15 and 16 during the negotiations on the public finances.
Last spring, the government already decided on adjustments worth around six billion euros. New destinations are getting harder to find all the time. There may even be an increase in the value added tax on food as well pension indices and education allowances.
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The government agreed last spring that if spending increases, it will look for savings elsewhere.
Last after the government negotiations in the spring, there have been surprising new expenses other than the losses of welfare areas.
Almost as much spending pressure for next year is caused by the surprising information published by the Ministry of Finance in November that the state shares given to municipalities by the state threaten to decrease by hundreds of millions of euros.
In 2025, state contributions will be 423 million euros less than the municipalities had expected. In 2026 and 2027, the difference is half a billion euros.
The government should therefore look for a permanent cut of around half a billion euros from other expenses for the years 2025–2027, if it wants to fully compensate for the larger than estimated decrease in income that came as a surprise to the municipalities.
Through the state contribution system, the state participates in the financing of statutory municipal basic services such as education.
This means that if the government does not replace the municipalities' smaller than expected state contributions, the municipalities will have to cut back on education.
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