4. Debate on a Statement: Draft Budget 2020-21

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:08 pm on 7 January 2020.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 5:08, 7 January 2020

That's absolutely right. All of these things that we're doing to ensure that people keep money in their pockets are political choices that we have made about the way in which we spend our budget, and the kind of draft budgets that we put before this Assembly year on year. So, other examples would be the education maintenance allowance—£30 a week for 16 to 18-year-olds living in low-income households. I hear Rhianon saying 'You won't get that in England', and she's absolutely right there. There's £4.4 million for the Welsh Government grant for further education, so that's up to £1,500 for a full-time course, or £750 for a part-time course for students aged 19 or over, again from those low-income households. And I could go on and on, including things such as the £244 million we're investing in the council tax reduction scheme. The discretionary assistance fund—£12.6 million, providing urgent financial assistance to people who really do find themselves destitute, to be able to buy food, pay for their gas and electricity and buy other essential household items. Again, we're looking to see what we can do always to bolster that particular fund, because we know how important it is to people who apparently have never had it so good.

So, across Welsh Government we can see that there is around £1 billion of funding that is going directly into anti-poverty schemes across all portfolios, and I think that's something that we should all be very proud of, because it does differentiate this as a Labour Government budget as compared to others.