Shadow Minister for Social Justice and North Wales MS, Mark Isherwood, has challenged the Welsh Government on the actions it has taken to establish a 'coherent and integrated’ Welsh benefits system as recommended in a report published in October 2019.
Mr Isherwood was a member of the Senedd Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee that produced the report on 'Benefits in Wales: options for better delivery' to examine: arguments for and against the devolution of welfare benefits.
Speakingin yesterday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood questioned the Trefnydd, Lesley Griffiths, who was answering questions on behalf of the First Minister, over the progress that has been made in acting on recommendations in the report subsequently accepted by the Welsh Government.
He said:
“Our report stated 'the potential prize of delivering services that better suit Welsh specific needs' must be balanced against 'the possibility of breaking the social union' across the UK, which underpins 'the principle that all UK citizens have an equal claim to the welfare state, and that benefits and burdens depend on need and not geography'.
“When we debated this report last September, I welcomed the Welsh Government's acceptance of our recommendations that it ‘establish a coherent and integrated “Welsh benefits system” for all the means-tested benefits for which it is responsible, co-produced with people who claim these benefits and the wider Welsh public' and that it use ‘the Oxfam Sustainable Livelihoods approach toolkit’, recognising that all people have abilities and assets that can be used to improve their lives, adding 'We now need words turned into real action, so that at last things are done with people, rather than to them'.
“So, what action has the Welsh Government therefore taken since to turn its words into real action.”
The Minister said:
“We very much welcomed the recommendations from that report, about ensuring that we used the levers that we had, to make sure people right across Wales understand all the financial support that's available to them.
“The Minister for Social Justice published the progress report on that action plan (the Welsh Government's child poverty income maximisation action plan) —I think it was last week—and one outcome was that the programme of targeted income maximisation advice and support meant that people were helped to claim an additional income of nearly £2.5 million.”
Speaking afterwards, Mr. Isherwood said:
“The ‘action plan’ referred to by the Minister states only that the Welsh Government is ‘looking at further improvements to develop a simplified system for delivering devolved benefits’. When I previously called on the First Minister to respond to calls by the Bevan Foundation, Citizens Advice Cymru and Community Housing Cymru for the Welsh Government to establish a single point of access for benefits and support schemes administered in Wales, he dodged my question. Today, this Minister failed to provide a specific answer to my specific question. People in Wales need a coherent and integrated ‘Welsh benefits system’, not more Welsh Government waffle and bluff.”