Did you mean to child benefit can?
Luke Taylor: ...you and our communities, from Sutton to Worcester Park, Cheam to Belmont and everywhere in between. I hope I am already going some way to repaying the trust they have put in me by voting to end the two-child benefit cap, voting to save the winter fuel payment, and already helping hundreds of them with issues and concerns through my office. To the people who did not vote for me, or did not...
Shirley-Anne Somerville: ...the UK, 1.6 million older people who are living in poverty will lose their winter fuel payment as a result of the UK Government’s decision to restrict eligibility to those in receipt of relevant benefits. The research shows that a further 900,000 older people across the UK whose incomes are just above the poverty line will also lose the winter fuel payment. Those people have incomes that...
Jane Dodds: You'll know that, over the past six years, we've seen a startling increase in the number of larger families who are living in relative poverty. Forty-three per cent of children in households of three or more are now at risk of relative poverty. That represents a staggering 100,000 children here in Wales. The two-child benefit cap is a key factor driving that crisis. This policy, widely...
Kirsty Blackman: Yet we have a situation where families with more children are impacted by the two-child cap and the benefit cap, and the Government are refusing to get rid of those things. At a stroke, they could lift thousands of children out of poverty and improve, overnight, their life chances. I appreciate the fact that the Government have the child poverty taskforce, but that is not making a difference...
Sioned Williams: Would you say then that you're like-minded on the two-child benefit cap?
Ivan McKee: ...still, why does the UK Government not commit to raising public sector pay in England to the same level as Scotland’s? That would be interesting. How about reversing the £1.3 billion of cuts to capital and nearly £300 million of cuts to financial transactions? If the UK Government is serious about investing to grow the economy, that would be a good place to start in order to grow the...
Sioned Williams: ...in the best interests of the people of Wales this afternoon. That’s what the community Secretary Carl Sargeant said at the time that was key to the decision made by the Welsh Government to drop child poverty targets in 2016. Check the record. And this has been repeated by his successors, including the former First Minister Mark Drakeford, and the current social justice Cabinet Secretary....
Brian Kingston: I thank Nuala McAllister for bringing the topic to the Floor. As she referenced, the Public Accounts Committee conducted an inquiry into child poverty in Northern Ireland, with the Audit Office publishing the report in March this year. The report stated that the percentage of children in Northern Ireland living in relative poverty is 18%, with 8% having lived in persistent poverty for at...
Sioned Williams: ...that Keir Starmer’s party is as enamoured of austerity policies as their Conservative predecessors. After all, one of their first actions on gaining power was to reconfirm their commitment to the two-child benefit cap and the cap on benefits, the main cause of high levels of child poverty in Wales, according to the former First Minister, Mark Drakeford, and harshly reprimanding those few...
Jackie Dunbar: ...started to go back to normal, or the new normal. Kirsty went back to school, although she had to wear a mask and some of her friends had moved away due to Brexit. Her siblings started nursery, benefiting from the 1,140 hours of free childcare. Kirsty’s world changed again when her dad got ill and lost his job. It is here that we have a tale of two Governments. Kirsty’s...
Sioned Williams: There was no mention made in your statement about child poverty. It’s very disappointing. I asked you when you became First Minister to put tackling child poverty at the top of your agenda and restore targets. That’s what provides delivery, First Minister—targets, targets to put an end to child poverty. When the child poverty target was dropped by the Welsh Government in 2016, we were...
Willie Coffey: Further to those figures, nearly 9,000 children in East Ayrshire are getting help from the Scottish National Party Government to keep them out of poverty. More than 100,000 payments totalling £13 million make a big difference. Contrast that with the attacks by the Tories that have been continued by Labour, that are meant to keep in place the two-child benefit cap, which will mean thousands...
Baroness Sherlock: ...enjoyed by private equity investors and introduce a proper windfall tax on energy company profits, we are having to make some difficult in-year spending decisions. This has included cancelling capital projects, stopping discretionary spend and, yes, means-testing the winter fuel payment so that it will no longer go to all pensioners—many of whom are clear that they do not need it—but...
Jackie Dunbar: Can the member clarify whether the Conservatives are keen to put food in the bellies of all our bairns or just the first two in a family, because I realise that they are still for the two-child benefit cap.
Ann Davies: It was only two months ago that Labour won a majority in the general election on a message of change. But in those two months the new Labour UK Government have refused to abolish the cruel two-child benefit cap and now seek to take away winter fuel payments of up to £300 from millions of pensioners across the UK, by limiting it to recipients of pension credit. Well, nothing has changed. Some...
Kirsty Blackman: Some 860,000 pensioners in Scotland are set to lose this benefit. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor have chosen to cut the pensioner cost of living payment. They have chosen to cut the winter fuel allowance. They have made the political choice to scrap those payments. The UK Labour Government are desperate to meet their self-imposed fiscal targets, but make no mistake: this is a political...
Mike Kane: ...a moment to pay tribute to my former constituent Ken Eastham, who died recently at the age of 96. He served the people of Blackley and Broughton in this House from 1979 to 1997. He knew me as a child, and was delighted that I became a Member of Parliament. He worked diligently on behalf of his constituents. I will remember him, his late wife Doris, with whom I kept in contact, and his...
Mike Kane: ...a moment to pay tribute to my former constituent Ken Eastham, who died recently at the age of 96. He served the people of Blackley and Broughton in this House from 1979 to 1997. He knew me as a child, and was delighted that I became a Member of Parliament. He worked diligently on behalf of his constituents. I will remember him, his late wife Doris, with whom I kept in contact, and his...
Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of households that are impacted by the two child benefit cap and the ending of their Winter Fuel Allowance.
Shirley-Anne Somerville: ...for Transport has already laid out some of the reasons behind her decisions on peak rail fares. I turn to the UK Government. Although we are determined to do as much as we can to tackle child poverty, as we always have, we need to ensure that both Governments that serve Scotland do that. To that end, I welcome the announcement from the new UK Government of a ministerial task...
