Dyma erthygl Sioned Williams AS ar effaith toriadau lles Llafur ar Gymru
Cyhoeddwyd yr erthygl hon yn y Glamorgan Gazette ddydd Iau 8 Mai 2025 (yn Saesneg).
Labour’s welfare cuts are short-sighted and immoral
When I raise concerns about decisions made by UK Labour Government in the Senedd, I often get push back from Welsh Government: that it’s not their responsibility, that we need to ask our questions of Keir Starmer not Eluned Morgan.
But when those changes disproportionately impact Wales, and when Welsh public services will be left to pick up the pieces, it’s exactly the right place to raise them.
Take the UK Labour’s Government’s proposed changes to welfare.
Recent analysis from expert researchers shows that the disability benefit reforms will affect around 2.9 million people across the UK, who could lose a combined £6.2 billion.
Wales has the highest proportion of disabled people in the UK, at 26%. Wales also has higher rates of disabled people of working age than the UK average and five of the UK's 10 local authorities with the highest rates of people not in work because of long-term illness. So, these cuts are going to hit people in Wales the hardest.
Indeed, experts have calculated that in Wales, nearly 190,000 people will be affected, which is 61 people in every 1,000. This would mean £470 million will be lost. And the needs of these people won’t just go away. Rather, if their benefits fund their care, then without them, they’re likely to have to turn to their local authority for social care support. Similarly, if losing welfare support results in a decline in their health, then the Welsh NHS will be impacted too.
This means that these short-sighted, immoral cuts to welfare won’t just impact the people I represent in the counties of Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot and Swansea, but also already struggling Welsh councils, who will have to step in to plug the gaps when people will inevitably need support.
I will continue to raise this with the Welsh Government, because once again in Wales, we’re going to be left picking up the pieces, trying to shield the people of Wales from decisions made in Westminster which will see thousands more people pushed into poverty.