Extract from questions in the Welsh Parliament on the
cost of living crisis
14:08:49. Diolch, Trefnydd. Child poverty is an issue of great
concern to me, and today I sponsored an event held by the
National Education Union and the Child Poverty Action Group,
who've been working together to highlight the impact of poverty
on education. The Welsh Government's roll-out of free school
meals to all primary pupils is welcomed by families across the
Cynon valley and across Wales, as is the provision of free school
meals during school holidays until February of next year, and the
additional resource provided by the pupil development access
grant. But with three in 10 pupils in Wales living in poverty,
and these figures only set to rise with the cost-of-living
crisis, and with the key levers to tackle poverty being non
devolved, what would be your message to the UK Tory Government
about the impact of their policy-making decisions on the next
generation?
Well, we can see the turmoil of what the mini budget last Friday
did. It's incredible the chaos that has been caused by , just a few days after moving into No. 10. I'm really
pleased that you had the event, because clearly it's something
that we need to raise awareness about, and tackling the impacts
of child poverty is a priority for this Government and we will
continue to support learners who are disadvantaged by poverty
throughout their educational journey. You mentioned some of the
initiatives that the Minister for education has brought forward;
we're also clear no child should ever be hungry in school, and
we've commenced the roll-out of universal primary free school
meals. One of the figures—I was reading some figures while
preparing for First Minister's questions today, and it was
stating that absolute poverty is on track to rise by 3 million
over the next two years and relative child poverty is projected
to reach its highest level—33 per cent—in 2026-27, which I think
is just so stark and shows where the UK Government could have
given confidence in their mini budget last week but they declined
to do so.
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