Child Poverty

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:46 pm on 19 January 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:46, 19 January 2021

Llywydd, I thank Helen Mary Jones for those further questions. I am persuaded by much of what was said in the report provided by the committee of the Senedd chaired by John Griffiths about exploring the devolution of the administration of aspects of the benefits system. It was a very helpful report, and it helps to shape the thinking of the Welsh Government, and I'm very happy to go on exploring that with Members who are of a similar persuasion.

As to the point the Member makes about free school meals, the changes that we have made to free school meals entitlement during this term will extend eligibility to thousands more children over the next couple of years. Plaid Cymru's policy is to provide free school meals to every child in a family where universal credit is being claimed. I set out for the Member last week that, if those families have two children per family, that's a cost of £67 million a year, and that would rise to over £100 million a year. Those other costings I have been provided by officials in the Welsh Government whose job it is to help us administer the help we currently provide to families receiving free school meals. Those are choices that Governments can make.

But the last questioner, Llywydd, asked me to find Welsh Government money to help families who struggle because of the council tax. Plaid Cymru has a policy of providing £35 a week for free-school-meals children, again at a cost of many millions of pounds. It has a policy of providing free childcare from 12 months of age, at a cost of £950 million. It has a policy of free social care for everyone in Wales. When parties put forward policies, they have to be able to credibly explain to people not why something is desirable, but why it is also achievable within the resources that the Welsh Government has, and I'm afraid when you begin to add up that long list of no doubt desirable things, I think very many question marks begin to emerge about their deliverability.