Energy Advice

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:13 pm on 18 January 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:13, 18 January 2022

I thank Carolyn Thomas for that evidence from the front line of the cost-of-living crisis. Last week, I remember we talked about the Resolution Foundation report on the cost-of-living catastrophe. Since then, we've seen the Institute for Fiscal Studies report on the cost-of-living crunch, and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's report today on the way that rising energy bills will be devastating, as the report says, for the poorest families. All the points that the Member makes are really important. My colleagues Julie James and Jane Hutt wrote jointly to the UK Government on 11 January setting out five different ways in which the UK Government could act that would make a positive difference for those families in the field of fuel poverty alone.

The good news, Llywydd, is that the £100 that the Welsh Government is making available through the winter fuel payment scheme has not just been welcomed by organisations like Citizens Advice, but it's been enormously taken up by individual households as well. As of 31 December, with returns from 20 of the 22 local authorities, more than 100,000 applications had already been received by local authorities, and it's a tribute to those local authorities that more than 33,500 of those applications have already been paid out. Now, I hope that, by today, that number will be even higher, both in terms of applications and payments. When those payments are being made, Llywydd, what I want to see is that the opportunity is taken to make sure that people know the wider set of help that is available to them, both through energy advice and through benefit advice as well. We need to take every opportunity, particularly when we are in contact with thousands and thousands of Welsh citizens, to make sure that we take that chance to make sure that there are other sources of help that we can offer them and that they get to know about it.