I broadly welcome today's statement with the progress towards a real living wage for all social care workers. Plaid Cymru has long called for a substantial pay increase in this sector. Social care jobs can be very rewarding, but they are very demanding and very responsible jobs. These jobs should be rewarded accordingly. Plaid Cymru wants parity of pay and parity of respect between health and social care staff. Delivering this would go some way towards stemming the drain of care workers from the sector. While the announcement last week of a bonus payment of £1,000 for care workers was welcome, I worry this will only paper over the cracks that run deep and have long standing in social care. I fear this will do little to attract anyone into the sector, and I doubt it will persuade anyone considering leaving to stay.

As I said earlier, this statement today is progress towards the delivery of a real living wage. I would be much happier if this announcement was about the delivery of a living wage to all care workers immediately. Today's announcement will be of little comfort to care workers who are yet to be paid the living wage, and may be kept waiting another two years for it, as per the Government's commitment. The cost-of-living crisis is already here, and it's set to get much worse. Care workers are struggling to pay their bills as things stand; they need that pay rise sooner, rather than later. Can the Deputy Minister therefore clarify the pace of the roll-out of the living wage for care workers? When does she expect 50 per cent of care workers to be earning the living wage? Or when does she expect it to be at 75 per cent or 90 per cent of staff? For reasons already mentioned, is there any possibility of bringing forward your commitment so that all care workers receive the minimum wage ahead of your 2024 deadline for delivering on this commitment? 

Even though this statement is about social care workers, I want to mention the key role that unpaid carers play in society. We cannot forget their immense contribution. I echo the calls of the Carers Trust to ensure that unpaid carers are protected from financial hardship by the Welsh Government. You can do this by ramping up the lobbying of the UK Government to reform carer's allowance to raise it to at least the same level as jobseeker's allowance. This is also one of the moments when anyone who values fairness and progressive policies can cast a jealous eye over proceedings in Scotland. There, they have carer's allowance supplement, which is paid twice yearly by Social Security Scotland. This underlines the need for a separate benefits system for Wales so that we can craft a more compassionate benefits system here in Wales similar to the one in Scotland. Deputy Minister, where do you stand on this matter? Will you be lobbying for the powers to be able to do this? Diolch yn fawr.