Now then, as we’ve heard, when universal credit was first proposed, many people welcomed aspects of it as a simplification of what has become a ridiculously complex system. However, such is the rare talent possessed by Iain Duncan Smith MP that defeat has been well and truly snatched from the jaws of any minor possible positive result.

And, yes, problems with the benefits system figure largely in my surgeries—my GP surgeries now. They always have. Issues with poverty and benefit payments figure largely in the medical sphere because of the poverty and the stress and the anxiety and the depression that follow on from complete mismanagement of how people who need money cannot get what was—as the Cabinet Secretary said—social security. We’ve forgotten that bit, about making sure that our people who need it have security.

There have been huge concerns about aspects of how universal credit was designed from the start, as we’ve heard from Bethan Jenkins and others: the monthly payments, the high taper rate, the penalties for second earners and so on. And obviously we’ve seen as well, in areas where we’ve had roll-out of universal credit, that the use of foodbanks has reached epidemic levels. The current situation, plainly, is totally unacceptable.

But the concerns about universal credit, those monthly payments, the penalties for second earners and so on, you know, you can tackle them, as we’ve heard, quite simply—you change the payments to fortnightly or weekly, you allow the housing components to be paid to landlords direct, if that’s what people want, to prevent arrears, you pay individuals not households, you don’t charge people to call the helpline and allow alternatives to online interaction for those digitally excluded, and you end the culture of sanctions on the most disadvantaged people in society.

These mitigation steps are already in place in Scotland and Northern Ireland as they are already devolved there. So, devolving administrative control to Wales would allow us to make payments fortnightly not monthly, make payments to individuals not households, pay the housing components direct to landlords to prevent arrears and evictions, to become responsible for professional development of DWP staff, which will allow far greater flexibility for reducing sanctions if not actually eliminating them completely, and linking DWP schemes with existing skills schemes could create a Welsh new deal and retraining.

Now, as I’ve said, and it has been said, welfare is already devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Administrative control costs are taken care of as the level of benefits and funding remains set by the Treasury. Labour supports devolving the benefits system in Scotland. In fact, it’s always pushing the SNP Government to go further. There is no issue there about not wanting benefits devolved in Scotland from a Labour point of view; they want the SNP to work even harder on it.

So, changing the frequency of payments will prevent evictions and homelessness, which carries a considerable cost to Welsh public services as well, which has to pick up the tabs of evictions and homelessness, not to mention slashing the use of food banks. We have to administer this rotten system better: give us the tools to do that, as Labour is pushing the SNP in Scotland. Labour supports the devolution of social welfare from Westminster to Holyrood and any moneys that need to administer it have obviously been taken care of. So, supporting devolution of benefits in Scotland is fair enough for Labour. Supporting it in Wales—not on the agenda. Support the Plaid Cymru motion and mitigate the disastrous consequence of universal credit in wales. Diolch yn fawr.