Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 8 March 2017.
I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that answer and for clarifying the impact. He will know that, a year ago, before the last March budget, the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions resigned over the then pending cuts to personal independence payments—the PIPs—arguing that the cuts were indefensible in a budget that benefitted higher-earning taxpayers. And in resigning, he said:
There has been too much emphasis on money saving exercises and not enough awareness from the Treasury, in particular, that the government’s vision of a new welfare-to-work system could not be repeatedly salami-sliced.’
This year, there is further tightening of the PIP regime through a statutory instrument, rather than on the floor of the Commons in full public view. Some Conservative MPs have expressed deep disquiet over this, not least after a Minister said he wanted to focus on the ‘really disabled’, for which he has subsequently apologised. So, will the Cabinet Secretary commission an up-to-date examination of the impact of these and other very recent UK policy changes on people with disabilities, and on rates of poverty in Wales, perhaps through the office of the auditor general, so that we can assess the damage to individuals and communities, and with that evidence, present the UK Government with the true impact of these policies?