Underpayment of Pensions to Women

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 8 June 2021.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:05, 8 June 2021

Well, Llywydd, of course the Welsh Government acts to make sure that women in Wales are aware of the rights that they have. Her party, of course, went into the last election saying that it would withdraw all the money that the Welsh Government spends on non-devolved responsibilities. And what she's just asked me to do is quite certainly not a responsibility that rests with this Senedd or with the Welsh Government. Fortunately, we didn't take her party's advice. So, the single advice fund that we have put together last year helped 127,000 people dealing with nearly 300,000 welfare benefit issues, and as a result of the investment that we made, an additional £43 million has come into Wales in unclaimed benefits. In March this year, Llywydd, we had the first national take-up campaign, focused most directly on those who were affected by the pandemic. From the information we have already, an additional £650,000 was claimed in Wales as a result of that one month's campaign. So, I'm of course happy to give the Member an assurance that the Welsh Government will go on playing our part in making sure that the rights that women in this position have are publicised and known to them, and we're very pleased to work with the UK Government on it as well. What we need to see is an urgency about making sure that women, many of whom now are very elderly and who will maybe not be able to take advantage of the money that will be owing to them—we need an urgency about making sure that those women are compensated in the way that is their right.