7. What action does the Welsh Government plan to undertake to reduce poverty in the mid and west region? OQ56198

I thank Helen Mary Jones for that. We focus on those actions that add to or leave money in the pockets of those who need it the most. That includes aiding Welsh citizens to secure entitlement to UK-wide benefits. Our single advice services helped people in Mid and West Wales claim over £4.7 million in additional welfare benefit income last year alone.

I'm grateful to the First Minister for his answer. He will be aware of the report from the Wales Governance Centre in April 2019 and, indeed, the report from a committee of this Senedd. The Wales Governance Centre estimated that if we were able to secure the devolution of welfare benefits on the same model that Scotland has, we could boost the Welsh budget by £200 million a year. Does the First Minister agree with me that it would greatly assist any Welsh Government's efforts to reduce poverty if we were able to control those elements of the benefit system here? Does he understand why my constituents in the poorest part of my region—towns like Llanelli—find it difficult to understand why the Welsh Government won't seek this power, in order to be able to take that practical action to which the First Minister refers? 

I'm very familiar with the report of the Wales Governance Centre to which Helen Mary Jones refers, and a very useful addition it was to the developing literature on what Wales should seek in relation to the benefits system. I take a different view, I suspect, to the Member. I'm in favour of seeking aspects of the administration of the welfare benefit system; I am not in favour of breaking up the UK's social security system. That's because I think that the United Kingdom offers a different opportunity to pool resources and share out rewards according to need, and that that is to the benefit of Welsh citizens, particularly our poorest Welsh citizens. The Wales Governance Centre report did say, as Helen Mary Jones says, that if we were offered devolution on the same basis as Scotland, that could lead to the sums of money the report identified. The report went on to say that it was highly unlikely that devolution on those terms would be offered to us, and set out the reasons why. So, I think it's important to provide a complete account of what that report said, and I'm afraid I agree with the report. It's very unlikely that the UK Government would be prepared to repeat the sort of deal that they offered to Scotland, partly because they now regret that they did so. Devolution of the administration of benefits is something that I've previously agreed with Helen Mary Jones about and I'm happy to repeat that, because I think that would give us a different set of possibilities in Wales without breaking up the access of Welsh people to the advantages that come by being part of that wider social security system.