<p>Changes to Social Security</p>

Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children – in the Senedd at 2:41 pm on 22 June 2016.

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Photo of Dawn Bowden Dawn Bowden Labour 2:41, 22 June 2016

Cabinet Secretary, you might well be aware of a recent report from Sheffield Hallam University Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research. They highlighted the disproportionate impact on welfare benefit cuts on the people of Wales compared to the UK as a whole—I think that’s the point that’s already been made—and this is even more pronounced in the Welsh Valleys. It notes that the proposed change to the local housing allowance will exacerbate these inequalities by impacting most on the already most deprived areas, where the reference point for setting the LHA rate will be the bottom 30 per cent of private sector rents, in an area where private sector rents are already extremely low. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what discussions the Welsh Government is having to ensure that those in receipt of local housing allowances in the most deprived areas in Wales are not disproportionately disadvantaged by the basis of the calculation of the average rent that will determine the LHA?