The annual reduction of the Family Fund is £1.83 million. So, just to give this a little bit of context: this debate is scheduled for 60 minutes, 20 minutes after this debate finishes, the UK Government will have given that amount out in foreign aid. We are a wealthy nation. We do have money.

I’ve done some basic sums based on correspondence that I’ve received, so the figures may differ, but you’ll get the picture from what I’m about to say. There are roughly 5,429 families eligible for the Family Fund. That amounts to about £337 per family. What does this sum add up to? Well, it’s just over the cost of two tv licences, or a month’s grocery shopping, or even a little more than a day’s allowance for an elected lord. This is a small amount of money, but it provides those who receive it with very welcome respite.

Raising and caring for a child with a disability can be both mentally and physically challenging, putting additional strain on budgets, health, emotions and relationships. Wales now finds itself out of kilter with the rest of the UK. We’re lagging behind once again. These sums of money, while relatively small, and with no obvious and immediate social or economic benefit, have a disproportionate effect on a set of our society for whom life is challenging enough already.

A beneficiary of the Family Fund—she’s called Kate—has told me that her daughter was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 10 months old. Neither parent could drive. Hospital appointments, shopping, and trips out were all dependent on others. The Family Fund paid for driving lessons and a test for Kate. She had to pass the test, and pass she did, first time. That gave the family some freedom. She was no longer reliant on others, and her child could get to her many and varied appointments in the adapted car that she needed—a relatively small sum of money, making a massive difference. Fifteen years later, Kate still drives that adapted car, she still ferries her child around to the many and varied appointments she continues to need, and always will need, along with the social requirements that a 16-year-old girl has.

The thing is that this ability to drive also opened up the job market to Kate. She now works full time, contributing to society, and is a great role model for her daughters. The Family Fund is not using a company credit card to purchase luxury lingerie, nor is it funding five-star trips to Barbados; it is funding a new washing machine or a long weekend away in an adapted and accessible caravan in the UK, giving much needed respite—things that many of us here take for granted.

I’ve no doubt that all of our inboxes have been inundated with e-mails from our constituents about this vote today—you know, those real people we are here to represent and for whom we are supposed to speak. Welsh Labour would do well to remember that when they are voting on this motion later. Anyone voting against this motion is out of touch with real people and they need to get out into the real world.

Every other administration in the UK has maintained funding. Yet again, Welsh Labour lets down those who need the help the most. One final word to you, Minister: you cannot dress this up, as you will no doubt seek to do. This is a reduction, a taking away, a deterioration in provision. Any suggestion to the contrary is outrageous. Mark Drakeford called on the Chancellor today to reverse the cuts in the budget. Well, get your own house in order, follow your own advice, and reverse this devastating cut.