Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:26 pm on 19 October 2021.
Diolch, First Minister. I'd like to thank you for your answer and to further state, certainly, my support and my party's support for the Welsh Government's plans for a universal basic income. Whilst I would prefer, of course, for the scope of the pilot to be widened beyond care leavers, as I've been calling on the Welsh Government to do, I'm still very keen to support the Government so that we can pilot this radical and transformational approach to reducing poverty here in Wales. It is this element of the UBI pilot with which I am most concerned, considering the high levels of poverty here in Wales.
In Wales, almost a third of our children live in poverty, meaning that as a proportion of our population, Wales currently has the worst levels of child poverty in the whole of the United Kingdom. I think it's also worth noting that this is certainly not helped by the Conservative Westminster Government's recent decision to cut universal credit, which of course will hurt the least well-off amongst our population. So, may I ask you, First Minister, how will your Government measure the success of this universal basic income pilot, particularly in relation to how it will reduce child poverty? Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn.