Let’s start with one damning fact. Almost half of the council tenants in the 105 local authorities who receive the housing element of universal credit are in arrears by a month. Nearly a third are behind by two months, whereas those still on housing benefit—only 10 per cent of council tenants—are a month behind, and less than 5 per cent of that group are two months or more behind. So, tell me again how universal credit helps in this regard. When the overall benefit itself is often cut and the UK Government expects those on the credit to simply muddle through, factor in all inexplicable delays and you have a recipe for disaster—evictions, court proceedings, court costs and the spiral of debt and charges that becomes too much for many to bear. And then, of course, there’s a final slap in the face. When someone in a difficult situation needs to call to enquire about the benefit and why there is a delay or a sanction or a late payment, they get charged up to 55p per minute. Thankfully, that particular penalty on the poor and disadvantaged is now being phased out, but only because of public pressure.

The administrative charges have also been poorly managed at best. Administrative control would benefit us here in Wales and make the lives of claimants better to properly incentivise work, whilst not condemning people to poverty in the process. When it comes to universal credit, the SNP have used their limited powers to propose more frequent payments—twice monthly—allowing people to have the housing component paid directly to landlords. However, they do not have the ability to prevent the culture of sanctions, in principle. The new social security Bill also imposes duties on Scottish Ministers to give assistance, which means that they could design discretionary housing payment systems to mitigate sanctions.

We must have the control of benefits devolved to Wales, so solutions designed for our country can be put into practice as they are being done in other parts of the UK. If Labour was serious about altering the current benefits and housing assistance regime, they would be supporting the devolution of benefit spending and policy, including universal credit. I fear, however, as we’ve witnessed with the bedroom tax and zero-hours contracts in the past, that they would prefer to make warm speeches, as you may hear today, condemning the Conservatives on a UK level, but not making or demanding the powers here in Wales so that we can be the masters of our own destiny. We’ve had similar issues on similar cases where we have the decisions, we have the powers within our control to be able to lead on this agenda.

I hope that the Welsh Government will now support the full devolution of benefits, which our people so clearly need, and I would hope that the Welsh Conservatives can follow the lead of some of their colleagues here in telling the UK Government to make changes, or abolish this harsh, arbitrary and pernicious regime. If we agree, as parties—or other AMs may agree—that this is a policy that is harming those who are in poverty, then we should be using every power that we have, even if that’s principled and moral power, to say to the UK Government that they should abolish this particular universal credit regime.