4. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the impact of the UK Government's financial austerity policies on Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney? OAQ51421

Llywydd, Welsh Government research demonstrates that the changes to benefits and tax credits alone are removing over £900 million each year from the least well-off households in Wales. Residents of Merthyr and Rhymney are amongst those worst affected.

Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. I'm sure you will recall that in 2011, the then Tory Chancellor said that his budget was

'about doing what we can to help families with the cost of living'.

He added:

'we have already asked the British people for what is needed, and today we do not need to ask for more'.

Well, six years later, many people in our communities are still paying the price of those austerity politics, and on many occasions, Cabinet Secretary, you've stressed your concerns at the impact of austerity. So, can you confirm that, unlike the policies of the Tory Government in Westminster, the policies and investments made by this Welsh Labour Government will continue to support people living in areas like my own constituency of Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney?

Well, Llywydd, the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, I think, has made a very important contribution on the floor of the Assembly over many months now, when she has made the case for investment in what she has called the social fabric of our communities—ways in which we can try to help to keep the safety net on which those families that I described so much depend.

Let me give just two examples of what the Welsh Government is trying to do to assist people in the Merthyr and Rhymney areas. We have maintained our council tax reduction scheme here in Wales. That means that those families that are having their benefits frozen or cut and their tax credits reduced in Wales don't find themselves at the same time having to put their hands in their pockets to pay the council tax. That's costing £224 million across the whole of Wales, but it puts £5.7 million directly into the pockets of those families in Merthyr, and it puts £13.6 million directly into the household incomes of the poorest households in Caerphilly.

At the same time, 1,592 children in Merthyr and 2,925 children in Caerphilly have benefited from our Flying Start programmes last year. These are just two practical examples of the way in which the social fabric of our communities is being defended and advanced by the Welsh Government, even at a time when the assaults on their well-being and their incomes are so severe from the UK Government.