'The shocking reality is that this winter, we are likely to see charities being forced to stop feeding the hungry so they can help the starving, cut back on support to the poorly housed so they can focus on the fast-rising numbers of homeless, and give up on helping the down-at-heel because their priority has to be the destitute.'

These are not my words, but those of Dr Rowan Williams and Gordon Brown in their foreward to the Theos report, which is a religious think tank that particularly focuses on the work of churches in endeavouring to relieve this level of concern and pain that our communities are going through. It echoes the latest NUS survey, which came out today, on the impact of the rising cost of living on students in Wales, because, obviously, they are not eligible for any of these benefits. Nine out of 10 of those who took part in this survey said that their mental health was being impacted by financial worries, and a quarter reported this to be significant, as well as increasing numbers cutting down on essentials, including, for example, period products, as well as not putting the heating on as much in their homes and eating less. I think, more concerning for me is that they are returning to their families, or savings, for help, but, increasingly, the cost-of-living crisis is affecting their families as well. So, there is nowhere for these people to turn to.

All those who have spoken so far have agreed that the situation is extremely serious, and we'll find out tomorrow whether public services will have even less resource to cope with, to get us through this terrible winter. So, we have to think of other ways in which we can endeavour to mitigate the pain that our communities are going through.

I was pleased to host the launch of the Enforcement Conduct Board in the Pierhead today. I'm very grateful to those Members who attended, including the Minister for Social Justice, who took the time to hear what Catherine Brown, the chair, had to say, and to agree to work with her. Catherine Brown has a long and distinguished career as a civil servant, so, as chair of this non-statutory body for Wales and England, she will bring a lot of experience of negotiating with public bodies and the enforcement of regulations. It is a non-statutory body, set up by the civil enforcement industry, otherwise known as bailiffs, and supported by several leading debt advice charities, including Money Advice Trust, Christians Against Poverty and StepChange. 

One of the expert debt advisers present today told me what happened after she moved into a new home that had previously been occupied by someone who appeared to have accumulated a large number of debts. She experienced a series of visits from bailiffs, most of whom were polite and correct in the way they conducted their business. But one in particular, acting on behalf of a local authority, had aggressive behaviour and reflected some of the testimonials that we heard in our Equality and Social Justice Committee inquiry into debt in the pandemic. This, obviously, is extremely worrying, and we need to ensure that all local authorities, when they're enforcing, for example, council tax debt, are not employing people who are cowboys in the industry and not adhering to the law. It is a sad fact that one of the growth areas in the economy in this crisis is debt collection agencies, and many of those trade in people's misery by buying up court enforcement orders in order to endeavour to make money from them. This is a very worrying situation, because once you get involved with debt collectors you're then, obviously, increasing the amount of debt that you owe, and sometimes the charges they are making are seriously unreasonable.

I just wanted to pick up on a point that Paul Davies made, which is around form filling and the difficulties that a lot of people have in doing that. I recall often the words of Lynne Neagle saying that the Healthy Start vouchers are not going to a large number of the people who are entitled to them. In an energy summit I organised in my constituency, it was very concerning to hear that health visitors report that trying to fill in the form to get the Healthy Start vouchers is so time consuming that they simply don't have the time to complete the application on behalf of these low-income women on benefits who desperately need that extra £8.25 in the first year of a child's life, and £4.25 per child up to four years. So, I think we have to look at ways in which we can help make this situation easier. I hope that we can speak to the UK Government about making this Healthy Start easier to get hold of.

I was particularly interested in the response of the Government to your report that said that the Welsh Government set up a task and finish group to look at a delivery model that will enable local authority data sources to be used to target pension credit information to households who may be missing out—