Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children – in the Senedd at 2:58 pm on 14 December 2016.
The Member is right to raise this very important issue, and we made a statement yesterday and I’ve had, I think, three questions today on child poverty. So, it is on everybody’s agenda, and rightly so. What I did say in the statement yesterday is that we don’t hold all the levers and drivers to achieve the ambitious target by 2020, and I will be very open about that, but there are things that we can do. Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows households in Wales will lose 1.6 per cent of their net income on average, or around £459 a year, as a result planned tax and benefit reforms to be introduced by 2020. So, this is another aspect where we have no involvement but which actually has a major impact on our communities. So, why are we changing our direction of travel in tackling jobs and well-being? This is because we know that the current situation is finding it very hard to deal with the issues that tackle poverty.
I’m grateful for the Member’s support for the way that we’re going to be tackling issues around adverse childhood experiences, and I hope that she can support us on the budget when it’s laid in the early new year.