Well, throughout our inquiry, I emphasised that our consideration of options for better delivery of benefits in Wales must focus on whether this would intrinsically benefit people in Wales, rather than on opinions of the transient policies of changing Governments. Governments in London and Cardiff come and go, and the policy agenda both between and within parties in both will change over time. As such, our focus must be on whether delivering things at a devolved level in perpetuity would, by itself, better meet Welsh needs and address the impact on devolved policy areas, rather than reflect the politics around current UK and Welsh Government policies.

As our report states,

'devolution does not improve things automatically, a point raised by most stakeholders including Oxfam Cymru, the Bevan Foundation, academics from Bangor University and the Deputy Minister.'

As we also noted, 

'the potential prize of delivering services that better suit Welsh specific needs' must be balanced against the possibility of breaking the social union across the UK that underpins the principle that all UK citizens have an equal claim to the welfare state and that benefits and burdens depend on need and not geography.

As the Chartered Institute of Housing told us, the current model

'which spreads social security spending over a larger demographic base is one that at present is advantageous to Wales,  where, quote,

'Due to a higher level of dependency on benefits in Wales, there is "effectively" a transfer of income from England to Wales.'

As they also said, just assuming that it's going to be better just because you're closer to it—I don't think that necessarily follows.

The Bevan Foundation highlighted the need for distinction between those benefits that are arguably part of the social contract, e.g. benefits that are based on national insurance contributions, and those that are variable top-up payments designed to support people in specific circumstances, e.g. to manage higher housing costs. They state that poverty could be reduced if the existing devolved schemes, including the discretionary assistance fund and council tax reduction scheme, were pulled together into a coherent, effective and fair Welsh benefits system.

In Scotland, the importance of involving people with lived experience in the design of the new social security system was emphasised to us, as was the need to counterbalance the savings generated by reduced appeals against the cost of increased take-up. In terms of UK benefit administration, we heard that there were fewer universal credit sanctions than ever before. We heard that although Scottish Conservative colleagues have supported the devolution of some social security powers, accounting for around 16 per cent of welfare spending in Scotland, there's still an anticipated £1 billion funding black hole despite the Scottish Government having more financial headroom, and the decision makers still need to make hard decisions at a devolved level. We're also told that the scale of the DWP meant that Scottish devolution will not work without its effective input.

As our report states, we're concerned that the current assessment processes do not always take best account of the specific needs or challenges faced by people with some conditions, an issue I've been raising repeatedly with the DWP and Capita on constituent cases. Hence the need to embed the lived experience of people into the design, implementation and evaluation of the benefits system. Contrary to the report's statement that the Scottish approach, where the private sector has been removed from the assessment process, requires further exploration, the focus should therefore be on the assessment process rather than who delivers it. Whether assessments are conducted by public, private or third sector, they will fail unless people with lived experience are involved in their design, delivery and monitoring.

I welcome the Welsh Government's acceptance of our recommendations that it establish a coherent and integrated Welsh benefits system for all the means-tested benefits for which it is responsible, co-produced with people who claim these benefits and the wider Welsh public, and that it use the Oxfam sustainable livelihoods approach toolkit, recognising that all people have abilities and assets that can be developed to help them improve their lives. We now need words turned into real action so that at last things are done with people rather than to them.

The Welsh Government states that it is finalising actions to take forward following its review of its existing programmes and services, and building on action already undertaken in response to the current crisis. However, developing a set of principles and values on which a Welsh benefits system will be based and tackling poverty more widely will only succeed with citizen involvement at its core. Diolch.