With reports showing that little progress has been made in reducing poverty in Wales and that poverty rates will increase significantly in the homes of those impacted by UK Government disability benefit reform, North Wales MS and Chair of the Senedd Cross-Party Groups on Disability and on Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency, Mark Isherwood MS, has today challenged the Welsh Government over action it will be taking to address this.
Speaking in this afternoon’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood raised the matter with the First Minister.
He said:
“The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Bevan Foundation 'Poverty in Wales 2025' report, released today, found little progress in reducing poverty in Wales over the last 20 years, and warned that if no action is taken, child poverty in Wales could reach 34 per cent by 2029-30, making it the highest rate of all UK nations.
“Sixteen years ago, a decade after Labour came into power in Wales in 1999, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reported that, ‘even before the recession, half of the previous improvement in child poverty had already been lost’, after child poverty reached the highest level of any UK nation, at 32 per cent, before the ‘Credit Crunch’ in 2008.
“Last month, the Bevan Foundation launched a report on ‘the Impact of Disability Benefit Reforms in Wales’, which you referred to. This found that poverty rates would increase significantly in affected households. This will place additional funding pressures on Devolved Services.
“So, in the context of Devolved Services, what, if any, contingency plans does your Welsh Government have for this, or are we to assume that you do not have any?”
In her response, the First Minister said: “There's a whole range of support that we have spent in supporting people when it comes to poverty, including around £7 billion over the past few years, targeted at those people who are struggling the most.”
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Isherwood said:
“The findings of these reports indicate quite clearly that what the Welsh Government is doing just simply isn’t working and sadly the situation only looks sets to get worse.
“Successive Labour Welsh Governments have failed to close the gap between the richest and poorest parts of Wales – and between Wales and the rest of the UK – despite having spent billions entrusted to them to tackle this on top-down programmes which did not do so.”