Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 15 February 2022.
I thank Adam Price for those additional points. Well, first of all, of course the point of having a round-table is to collect new ideas and to test ideas that we have already adopted with a wide range of people from across Wales. So, we will certainly be doing that on Thursday of this week. I don't think that criticism of the council tax rebate in Wales is completely fair, because it's not the same approach as has been taken in England. In England the money will be spread more thinly; here, we will provide the £150 not simply to households who pay the council tax, but we will also provide that money to the 220,000 households who are exempt from council tax because we have retained the council tax benefits system here in Wales. That costs £244 million by itself, way in excess of any consequential we may have had from the UK Government as a result of its council tax scheme in England. So, on top of all of that help, those families will now get an extra £150 to help with the cost-of-living crisis. And I think that is both a very efficient, but I think it's also a very progressive way of making sure that we have progressive universalism. Every household in bands A to D will get some help, but those households who need the help the most will get extra help here in Wales that they wouldn't get elsewhere.
As far as the discretionary assistance fund is concerned, here is another fund that was retained in Wales while it was abandoned elsewhere. We are finding a very significant sum of money, way, way in excess of any money that came to us when the social fund was abandoned in England. The ability to make five separate applications to the fund is two more than was possible when the fund was originally established, and we raised the number from three to five to take account of conditions during the pandemic. We're going to sustain that higher number into next year to take account of the cost-of-living crisis as well, and I think that, by itself, demonstrates our commitment to putting as much money as we can directly into the pockets of those families who will suffer the most from the additional costs that they will now have to bear.