What cross-cutting measures has the government put in place to promote prosperity and tackle poverty during the Sixth Senedd?
Tackling poverty continues to be a priority for the Welsh Government. Through our Programme for Government we have set out a range of commitments across Government to improve outcomes for low income households. This includes, amongst others, continuing to support our flagship Flying Start programme; a commitment to review eligibility criteria for free school meals; and additional funding for childcare where parents are in education and training.
Our support for a more generous ‘social wage’ through initiatives such as our Childcare Offer, our Council Tax Reduction Scheme, our Warm Homes Programme and Free Prescriptions, has the effect of leaving more money in the pockets of Welsh citizens. In addition, as part of our fair work agenda, we are committed to promoting and encouraging adoption of the Real Living Wage as a way of tackling low pay and in-work poverty.
The implementation of the Welsh Government’s Child Poverty – Income Maximisation Action Plan helped to maximise the incomes of families living in poverty in Wales. Throughout March 2021 we delivered the first national benefits take up campaign in Wales which resulted in an additional £651,504 being claimed by those entitled to benefits. From October 2021, we are delivering a national digital communications campaign, using the positive messages from the March campaign, to raise people’s awareness of their entitlements and encourage them to contact Advicelink Cymru (Claim what's yours | GOV.WALES). This will run through to early 2022 and depending on the impact, a further campaign will be considered over the subsequent 18 month period.
In the coming months, it is our priority to build on this excellent benefit take-up work, putting more measures in place to support households across Wales to maximise their income.
We continue to urge the UK Government to review this damaging decision which will drive more households into poverty.
A letter, signed by the First Ministers from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, was sent to the Prime Minister on 1st October to call on with the utmost urgency to reverse the UK Government’s short-sighted decision to withdraw the £20-per-week uplift to Universal Credit.
In response to the UK Government’s policies to withdraw the Universal Credit uplift of £20 per week and the end of the furlough scheme, this Government will continue to provide additional flexibilities to the Discretionary Assistance Fund (DAF) throughout the winter, including the reintroduction of fuel support for off-grid clients. Between the periods 18 March 2020 when Covid-19 recording began, up to 03 September 2021, a total of 294,518 EAP DAF payments have been made totalling over than £19.5m, of which 223,379 quote Covid-19 as a cause, amounting to almost £15m. Welsh Government has invested an extra £14.9m into the DAF to help support the increasing demands on the fund during 2020/21. On 2 March, we announced a further £10.5m for 2021/22 in the final budget to continue the unprecedented support we have made available to those who need it most.
Our Programme for Government includes a commitment to continue to meet the rise in demand for free school meals resulting from the pandemic. Over £60m in additional funding was made available to local authorities for free school meal provision during the 2020-21 financial year, and we have committed additional funding of £23m for the school holidays in the 2021-2022 financial year. The Programme for Government also makes the commitment to review the eligibility criteria, extending entitlement as far as resources allow. This review has already commenced and the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language will provide an update shortly.
For the third year running we have provided £2m funding to help tackle food poverty and address food insecurity in Wales. This year nearly £2m is supporting 40 organisations, local authorities and third sector organisations to put in place sustainable mechanisms which help build resilience, such as community growing, community cafes, and food share schemes.
The Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) has been commissioned to undertake a review of international evidence on what works in tackling poverty and they commissioned University College London to undertake some deep dives into specific policy areas. This analysis, which will be completed later this year, will help to inform the design and implementation of future actions to tackling poverty in Wales.
Poverty has also been embedded within the heart of the budget planning process. This will help to focus portfolio priorities across government on those things that contribute to addressing inequalities and improving outcomes for low income households.