6. What action is the Welsh Government taking to alleviate poverty in Wales? OQ55856

I thank Mike Hedges. Llywydd, the Welsh Government is focused on those practical actions that maximise income and reduce essential living costs. In this term, we have introduced the only nationally funded and designed holiday hunger programme in the United Kingdom, and in January, we will provide the first ever help with breakfast costs for children entering secondary school.

Can I thank the First Minister for that response? Like I—sorry, I had to cough there. We all remember when employment used to be the way out of poverty, but we know now there are a lot of families with people working—in some cases, both parents are working—who are living in poverty. We also see the £20 per week uplift in working tax credit being ended in April by the Westminster Government. What is the Welsh Government doing to end exploitative contracts paying less than the real living wage on either zero-hours or low guaranteed hours contracts for those directly or indirectly funded by the Welsh taxpayer?

I thank Mike Hedges for that, and he returned to the point that I made earlier this afternoon, Llywydd, that in terms of in-work poverty, universal credit was meant to be the solution to in-work poverty, and it's not turned out to be, of course, because it was never funded generously enough to make it so. It has a marginal tax rate of 63 per cent, so if you are a poor working family and you earn an extra pound, you get to keep 37 pence of it. It's not much of an inducement, is it, to make your way further into the world of work? And this year we have the additional difficulty of the Chancellor's refusal to confirm that the additional £20 each week to universal credit will be carried on beyond the end of this financial year. As I said, 35 per cent of non-pensioner households in Wales are set to lose over £1,000 a year through that change of policy. I hear noises off, as you do, in the Chamber, Llywydd; they would be better directed to supporting those families than to making the sort of remarks I was overhearing.

How do we act, Mike Hedges asked? Well, we act ourselves. The NHS in Wales became a living wage employer when I was the health Minister, and has been ever since. We use our economic contract to make sure we're promoting fair work wherever Welsh Government public money is provided. We act with others, Llywydd: the social partnership council will launch the workplace rights campaign before the end of this month, and that will be another way in which we can act to deal with in-work poverty, and we support the campaigning work of others.

I was privileged to be able to launch Living Wage Week here in Wales on Monday of last week, and it was, in a difficult year, very encouraging to hear all universities in Wales are now living wage employers, the Welsh Local Government Association has been accredited this year as a living wage employer, and Cardiff council has an ambition to make Cardiff a living wage city in a way that is an inspiration to many other cities across the whole of the United Kingdom.

Question 7 [OQ55897] has been withdrawn. Finally, therefore, question 8, Helen Mary Jones.