3. Statement by the Minister for Social Justice: Cost-of-living Update

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:26 pm on 14 June 2022.

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Photo of Mike Hedges Mike Hedges Labour 3:26, 14 June 2022

I thank the Minister for bringing this statement today. It is very expensive to be poor. You pay more for energy via tokens, you are more likely to live in a very poorly insulated house, you go to bed early to avoid heating costs, and in winter you wake up to windows with ice from your breath on the inside. Rent has gone up, gas has gone up, electricity has gone up, the general cost of living has gone up to a point where people have less to spend on food, and many value products have increased far more than the general increase in the cost of food. People are eating less or skipping meals, or are having less nutritious food, bulking out on white rice and pasta and cutting out the more expensive fresh fruit and vegetables, and producing filling meals, not nutritious meals. And, of course, in the end, children eat and parents don't. 

I welcome the Welsh Government's actions—I won't name them all, but things such as help with fuel costs support, the cost of sending your children to school, Healthy Start vouchers, support for hundreds of thousands of people with council tax bills every year, and I also welcome the two successful 'Claim what's yours' campaigns, and the most recent was very successful. Does the Minister agree, however, that the most effective action would be to strip out the built-in five-week delay for the first universal credit payment, which drives people into poverty immediately, and to reverse the universal credit cut? This is not a panacea that will solve all the problems, but it would make what is very bad just bad.