Mae Sioned Williams AS yn ysgrifennu am y sgandal genedlaethol sydd angen bod yn brif flaenoriaeth i'r Prif Weinidog newydd
Cyhoeddwyd yr erthygl hon yn Glamorgan Gazette ddydd Iau 8 Awst 2024 (yn Saesneg).
The national scandal that needs to be top of the new First Minister’s inbox
By the time you’re reading this, there will have already been a new First Minister, and our third this year alone.
At the top of their inbox should be tackling the shameful rate of child poverty in Wales.
The fact that one in three children in Wales live in poverty should be cause for national scandal. But after 14 years of Tory cuts to public services, after the Labour Welsh Government, which has been in power in Wales ever since we’ve had devolution, scrapped its own targets for eradicating child poverty, and after the new Labour Westminster Government refused to scrap the cruel benefit cap and two child limit which drives families into poverty, is it any wonder that the number remains so stubbornly high?
Two First Ministers ago, in January, I wrote about child poverty for this column. It had cropped up because of the latest PISA results – the world-wide set of results that look at performance in maths, reading and science, and examines different factors which can affect that performance – like well-being and poverty.
The survey found that one in ten students in the UK have had to miss a meal at least once a week because of poverty. Given Wales has a greater proportion of its children in poverty than other UK nations, it’s not too much of a stretch to assume that this impacts children in Wales more.
And this is the point with child poverty – this isn’t just about money. It’s not solely about food, or heating, or housing. It’s also about all those knock on impacts – children in poverty are less likely to perform well at school, more likely to end up in hospital, and more likely to have poor health outcomes which impact their job opportunities.
The cost is not just to the child, but for society and the public purse as well.
This is why it was so disappointing that Labour in Westminster voted to continue Tory policies like the benefit cap and two child limit. So I want to see what our new First Minister will do in the face of such inaction from their bosses in London.
For Plaid Cymru, tackling child poverty will always be our priority. A quick search of the Senedd record will show that I’ve raised it 33 times alone this year, it was the question I put to the outgoing First Minister on his last First Ministers Questions in the Senedd. I will continue to raise it with the new First Minister. The cost of tackling child poverty is nothing when compared to the cost of not doing so.