Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 17 November 2021.
Recent analysis from the End Child Poverty coalition found that Wales has the highest child poverty rate of any UK nation. This is despite two decades of strategies, plans and Senedd inquiries, and the Children's Commissioner for Wales has called child poverty the Welsh Government's biggest challenge, yet it doesn't receive a mention in the five-year programme for government. Those on low incomes have taken a great financial cut when furloughed or made redundant, with 54,000 food bank parcels going to children in Wales between April 2020 and March 2021. That's a parcel every 10 minutes. While the £51 million of support announced as part of the household support fund is welcomed, does the finance Minister have any radical or longer term funding plans to tackle the root cause of the persistent child poverty issue here in Wales? I would hope the Minister would agree with me that the fact that so many children are living in poverty in Wales today is nothing short of a national disgrace.