Universal Credit

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:17 pm on 6 October 2021.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 3:17, 6 October 2021

It's absolutely clear that the UK Government is just turning a deaf ear even to the pleas from people within their own party and former Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions. So, I think we have to fall back on what we can do. Obviously, the increase in the discretionary assistance fund is very welcome, but I just wondered what conversations you might be able to have with your colleagues in the climate change ministry about how we could accelerate the retrofitting of social housing. Because, obviously, that is where a very large number of universal credit recipients are living, and they are therefore going to be £20 a week worse off. Also, what can we do to somehow rectify the total imbalance in the food that's rotting on the trees and is about to be culled in grotesque images on the farms, simply because we cannot get the right skills to rectify the problems that we have with our food security? So, what can we do to ensure that food that's currently not being collected reaches the people who most need it?