Shadow Communities Secretary Mark Isherwood AM has this afternoon called on the Welsh Government to take all steps within its powers to tackle child poverty in Wales, which stands above the UK level.
Speaking in today’s Assembly Debate on Child Poverty, Mr Isherwood stressed that although child poverty in Wales fell briefly to the UK level in the middle of the last decade, it started rising above UK levels again before the financial crash and recession – and only started falling after the change of UK Government in 2010. He said that at 28%, Child Poverty levels in Wales still exceeded Scotland and Northern Ireland last year.
He said:
“According to End Child Poverty Local Authority data in January, 178,676 children in Wales are considered to be in poverty after housing costs– with Child poverty in Wales, per capita, above the UK average, where 1 in 3 live in poverty after housing costs, compared with 1 in 4 in Scotland and England.
“Child Poverty cannot be looked at in isolation. After 19 years of Labour Welsh Government, Wales has the highest poverty rates of all UK nations at 24%, the highest level in Wales since 2007-08. Wales also has the second highest poverty rates out of all the UK regions.
“Further, Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s ‘Poverty in Wales 2018’ report found that the proportion of households living in Income Poverty in Wales remains higher than in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland – and that poverty among couples with children has been rising since 2003-06.
“14% of children in Wales live in a workless household, compared to 11% for the UK.
“Wales has the lowest employment rate and highest economic inactivity rate in Britain, and the highest unemployment rate of UK nations.
“Although UK real wages are now rising faster than prices, Welsh workers now have the lowest weekly wages out of the all UK nations, with gross weekly earnings £46 behind the UK level.”
Mr Isherwood moved an Amendment calling on the Welsh Government “to take all steps within its powers to tackle child poverty as part of a new plan for eliminating child poverty that includes SMART targets rather than vague statements”.
Mr Isherwood also referred to the failure of the Welsh Government’s £0.5 billion tackling poverty programme, Communities First, which as the Bevan Foundation stated: “did not reduce the headline rates of poverty in the vast majority of communities, still less Wales as a whole”.
He said: “The Bevan Foundation have stated that “a new programme should be co-produced by communities and professionals, and not be directed top down, that it should be based on a clear theory of change, building on people’s and communities’ assets, not deficits, and that local action should be led by established community-based organisations with a strong track record of delivery, which have significant community engagement.” As they also stated, “if people feel that policies are imposed in them, the policies don’t work”.