Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Social Justice – in the Senedd at 1:34 pm on 16 March 2022.
Thank you very much, Mike Hedges. Last October, the UK Government's decision to end the £20 a week universal credit uplift payment condemned thousands of households across Wales to life on the poverty line. Also, with inflation forecast to hit 7 per cent, the motion to approve the uprating in welfare benefits payments from April by only 3.1 per cent was passed in the House of Commons, and, I have to say, with the full support of the Conservative MPs. But it is true what you say in terms of also ensuring that we work to improve levels of pay and deal with exploitative contracts. It is crucial that we are leading by example as a real-living-wage accredited employer, and also ensuring that, through our fair work and our social partnership, we're tackling those exploitative contracts as well.