The number of people with disabilities has risen from year to year. In 2009 there were more than 118,000 people in Estonia with a certified disability, representing 8.8% of the population. The majority are elderly people: 59% of people with disabilities are aged 63 or older.

14,800 people had a disability certified for the first time in 2008, 8% of them children, 41% of working age and 51% pensioners.
Both state and local governments have important roles to play in the social welfare and social insurance of people with disabilities. The provision of social services and the payment of social benefits is financed by the state budget and local government budgets.

Through social benefits for people with disabilities the state compensates them for the additional costs they incur due to their need for assistance. This need is determined on the basis of the extent of their disability, which can be moderate, severe or profound. The extent of a disability of children of up to 16 years of age and persons of the retirement age is based on whether a person requires personal assistance, guidance or supervision 24 hours a day, 12 hours a day or at least once a week. The extent of a disability and the necessity for additional expenses caused by the disability of a person of working age (a person of 16 years of age until attaining the retirement age) is established proceeding from restrictions on participation in daily activity and social life. The extent of a person’s disability may change as a result of rehabilitation, the use of technical aids, adaption of their living environment and other factors.

Social welfare is designed to provide people with disabilities - or their families - with assistance in preventing, overcoming or alleviating any difficulties they may experience or may be experiencing with coping and to contribute to the security, development and acclimatisation of the person with the disability in society.

Particular attention is paid to the development of rehabilitation services so as to improve the ability of people with disabilities to cope independently, increase their social inclusion and facilitate their working or taking up a job. In order to improve people’s ability to cope, the social benefits for people with disabilities are becoming more and more centred on rehabilitation. The aim of rehabilitation is to teach people how to cope as independently as possible in the new situation they find themselves in.

24-hour social welfare services supporting adults with special psychiatric needs are also funded by the state budget. Significant developments have been made in recent years where these services are concerned. Whereas as recently as the end of the 1990s people with such needs were only provided with 24-hour care services, in the years that followed a full range of other services were also made available to them: support for everyday life; supported living; living in a community; and most recently (2001) support for employment.

Children, adults and elderly people with disabilities who require prosthetics and orthopaedic and other technical aids are compensated by the state for 50-90% of the cost of a technical aid (the contribution by the state is determined by a regulation of the Minister of Social Affairs according to the type of technical aid in question). In making this payment, the proportion of the cost being contributed by the state is only covered once the individual’s own proportion has been paid. This amount is the difference between the total cost of the technical aid and the amount of the state’s contribution, but not less than 200 kroons.

The provision of other social welfare services to people with disabilities is primarily the responsibility of local governments, in terms of both providing services on the basis of assessed need and paying benefits.