The Rising Cost of Living

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:42 pm on 16 November 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:42, 16 November 2021

Well, Llywydd, it's no great celebration in Wales to be offered £25 million by a Government that is taking nearly £250 million out of the pockets of our poorest citizens. That's what I call very small change indeed. I'm glad that the Welsh Government has been able to more than double the sum of money that we received in that consequential. And the answer to the Member's question is to be found in the statement that the Welsh Government has already published today, because, in addition to the £100 cash payment towards the payment of winter fuel bills, the statement details investments to support and bolster food banks, to invest in public transport assistance schemes, to put further money into the discretionary assistance fund, and to go on, as I said, supporting Welsh citizens to make sure that they receive the help they need from the UK benefit system through our Advicelink Cymru—Advicelink Cymru, Llywydd, where we are employing 35 new full-time equivalent welfare benefit advisers to deal with what we hope will be a very strong uptake from our Claim what's yours campaign, which we will be running from now until the end of March of next year. All of those things are covered in my colleague Jane Hutt's statement, and I commend it to the Member.