Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:10 pm on 13 July 2022.
The reality is that child poverty has remained alarmingly high over the past decade. Whilst my colleague Liz Saville Roberts raised with the Prime Minister in Prime Minister's questions today that he should scrap the two-child limit and reinstate the £20 uplift for all families entitled to welfare—by the way, I have to say, it was another poor response from him on this issue—I am keen to learn what Welsh Government can do.
Now, we'll be having a debate later on today on the Welsh Government's spending priorities. I'll be making the case again for expanding the education maintenance allowance. I do accept that there will be conflicting priorities in the Welsh Government's budget, but surely tackling child poverty should be one of the main priorities within the Welsh Government's budget. I would hope that the Welsh Government would reflect this, not just by introducing further support but also agreeing to set child poverty targets so that we can better measure Welsh Government's successes or failures within this field. And on this point as well, the Bevan Foundation is right to say that the fact that poverty targets have not worked in the past is not a reason to dismiss the potential benefits of setting new ones.