Of course, the points that Siân Gwenllian raises are important, and matter to me as finance Minister. What has happened in the last 12 months, Dirprwy Lywydd, is that the number of households who are claiming council tax benefit has gone down. This is associated with the rise in employment levels in parts of Wales over the last 12 months, and that has the effect of allowing us to sustain the scheme in full and to make it slightly more generous in some aspects next year, so that the qualifying criteria for the scheme next year will not have been narrowed at all, and that we can continue, we think, to meet the costs of that from the budget that we were able to provide in this financial year. That's £244 million of Welsh Government money, topped up, it is true, as Siân said, by a contribution—from memory, Dirprwy Lywydd—of around £12 million by local authorities themselves. We don't expect their contribution to have to rise next year either.

But, should conditions in the economy change, should there be an upturn in the number of people needing help from the scheme, then of course, in bringing the regulations before the National Assembly next year, I'd have to put proposals in front of you either to increase the budget available or to find a way of narrowing the entitlements within the schemes, so that it can live within the budget that it has. We are in the fortunate position of not having to do that next year. The budget we have is sufficient. The scheme has not been narrowed, it's been marginally extended in its generosity, and I hope that Members in the Chamber will be willing to support a scheme that puts a large sum of Welsh Government money directly into the pockets of those whose circumstances are amongst the most difficult in the land.