As Plaid Cymru spokesperson on social justice and equalities, I welcome the recommendations of this important report. As Paul Davies mentioned, many of these recommendations echo and underline many of those that have been made by a number of reports by the Equality and Social Justice Committee into issues related to poverty and the cost-of-living crisis, as well as calls made by many anti-poverty organisations and campaigners.

The findings of this report as regards the scale of the cost-of-living crisis are stark in the context of today's inflation figures and the findings of the children's commissioner's survey released today, which found that 45 per cent of children said they worry about having enough to eat. They evidence an unprecedented crisis. We have perhaps started to become too familiar with these shocking, shameful statistics that reveal how vulnerable our citizens are to economic shocks, how our already scandalous levels of poverty have meant that too many people have been on a dangerous precipice for too long, their precarious financial situation fragile and flimsy in the face of the economic storm that is hitting them so hard. But the headlines, so bold and alarming in this report, bear repeating. Wales this summer had the highest percentage of households in serious financial difficulty of any of the devolved nations and English regions—a quarter of people cutting back on utilities, a third cutting back on food, higher numbers borrowing and getting into debt, and an unprecedented demand for crisis support. All this is having a disproportionate effect on women, exacerbated by intersectional impacts for disabled women and women from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

The report also bears out warnings about the grim and worsening situation facing Welsh households issued in the Equalities and Social Justice Committee's first report of this sixth Senedd on debt and the pandemic, and our inquiry into the next iteration of the Warm Homes programme, during which we took a lot of evidence on fuel poverty. The report before us today tells us that every 40 seconds, a Welsh bill payer is making a call to Citizens Advice about their fuel bill. Delivery, low take-up and an awareness of support schemes are again here recognised as a challenge and a concern. Again and again, we see in report after report, both from Senedd committees and from research of policy and third sector organisations, that there is a lack of disaggregated data on the impacts of rising living costs on particular groups on indicators such as poverty, deprivation and debt.

Recommendations 1 to 13 all speak to the need for better targeting, co-ordination and delivery of the cost-of-living support that is available. It's something that Plaid Cymru have consistently advocated for. We need to make sure that every pound of Welsh support is going to the right place at the right time, and we need to know how much support is needed and where. Recommendations 5 and 6 again reiterate calls made many times around the winter fuel support scheme. We must see that the support on offer from Welsh Government is being evaluated appropriately and quickly so that subsequent schemes are made even more efficient in achieving their purpose.

Recommendation 8 calls for the Welsh Government to bring together means-tested support schemes for low-income households through a Welsh benefits system, and there's also a mention of a statutory element to local authority delivery of support payments in recommendation 10. Having brought a debate on a legislative proposal to the Senedd a couple of weeks ago on this very issue, a proposal that was passed by the Senedd, I was very pleased to see that this is again being endorsed with cross-party agreement. The recent report from Audit Wales says that, because there isn't a streamlined, simpler system for claiming payments, the help on offer isn't as effective as it could be, with people having to complete multiple applications for different payments that often ask for the same information.

That report has also shown that people in all parts of Wales are experiencing poverty and the number is growing. We know that the news from Westminster tomorrow won't be good for either those one in eight households in Wales who are struggling to afford everyday items, or the households on benefits who are struggling the most. Welsh Government has had to step in more and more with different support payments as Westminster has failed to protect those in Wales who need the support the most. There are children going hungry today. There are disabled and elderly people who can't keep their homes warm. There are families who are facing homelessness. They can't depend on those Tories in Westminster who would impose more devastating austerity policies upon them, and neither can they wait for a change of Government in Westminster. They elected a Government in Cardiff to serve them, and serve them they should by acting quickly on these important recommendations. Diolch.