3. What assessment has the Cabinet Secretary made of the impact of Universal Credit in Wales? OAQ(5)0133(CC)

I thank the Member for Newport West for her question. We have comprehensively assessed the impact of the UK Government’s welfare reforms, including universal credit. This assessment covers a range of impacts, including the number of households affected, impacts on income and work incentives and wider impacts associated with a single monthly household payment paid directly to claimants.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Universal credit has huge implications for families across Wales, pushing more children into poverty and hitting 18 to 21-year-olds hard. Recently, I hosted an event to launch the innovative research by Cardiff Metropolitan University in partnership with Community Housing Cymru and the Oak Foundation on the implications of the universal credit. The research was undertaken by tenants and is the first of its kind in Wales. One of the findings highlighted the complex, jargon-filled written communications from Government departments and housing associations, which often can be difficult to read and understand. What steps can the Welsh Government take to ensure housing associations, local authorities and others explain coherently and clearly at all times to their tenants?

I thank the Member for a very serious question. Generally, single 18 to 21-year-olds with no children will not be entitled to help with their housing costs when universal credit, from 1 April—this week—comes into force. There are a number of exemptions, including those who are disabled or unable to live at home with their parents. There are approximately 1,000 people affected in Wales, but this does not take into account the extensive exemptions that may apply. This is a very harsh implementation of the credit reform. We do not support this; this is a UK Government intervention. We are very concerned that the number of young people displaced in our communities will increase through this, and I have asked my team to look at this with some urgency.

Cabinet Secretary, a Department for Work and Pensions study found that those on universal credit were 8 per cent more likely to have found a job within 270 days than those who had claimed under jobseeker’s allowance. So, there are aspects of this new scheme that really are working. I do hope you have the grace to acknowledge that.

Statistics, statistics, statistics. What worries me is what’s actually happening on the ground in our communities, when I and you will see your postbag filled with people experiencing difficulty with universal credit and the credit reform. It was rolled out first of all in Flintshire in my own constituency, actually, so I’ve seen an increase in pressures there. But I can’t see anybody in this room, irrespective of politics—. The fact that 18 to 21-year-olds now will be having the removal of any housing benefit claim—what happens to those young people? Where do they go for their housing solutions? People will be put on the streets. A thousand young people in Wales are being committed to things that shouldn’t be happening to very young people in our communities.

I’m very pleased to hear your strong words on the awfulness, really, of what the UK Government is trying to do to 18 to 21-year-olds, and it’s something that, as you know, lots of organisations supporting young people are absolutely up in arms about and are campaigning against. I welcome what you’ve said about talking to your officials, but will you, working across Government, make the most forceful possible representations to the UK Government to tell them that they’ve made a mistake on this, that it will lead to homelessness for young people, and ask them to think again?

Indeed, and the Member is right to raise this issue, as many others have. I’ve already met with Shelter Cymru this morning on this very issue. This is of grave concern to us, and we’re looking at some very quick responses to the potential issue of homelessness for young people. We cannot allow young people to be introduced to the streets of Wales. It is fundamentally wrong by the UK Government.