Labour MSs criticise benefits plan in Senedd debate

Several backbench Labour MSs have criticised plans for cuts to disability and sickness benefits in a Senedd debate.

The Welsh government has come under pressure over decisions made in Westminster to change personal independence payments (PIPs).

It is the latest in a line of criticisms made by Labour Senedd politicians of the UK government in the last few days.

Plaid Cymru accused the Welsh Labour government of not going far enough in challenging its Westminster colleagues.

On Wednesday Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford said it was "wrong" Welsh public services faced a shortfall of £65m due to the National Insurance increases

The same day, First Minister Eluned Morgan said she was "really worried" about the benefits changes.

Earlier in the week the first minister appeared to publicly criticise the Welsh secretary for saying she had welcomed the benefits changes.

Morgan has called for a specific Wales impact assessment - a request that has not been fulfilled by her colleagues in Westminster.

In a seperate session in the Senedd, social justice minister Jane Hutt said she has "strongly" complained about the two child benefit cap to the Labour UK government.

The benefits debate took place after Labour agreed on Tuesday to the Plaid Cymru proposal for the matter to be discussed in the Senedd.

Plaid Cymru MS Sioned Williams urged the Welsh government "to show leadership on this matter, which up to now has been conspicuous by its absence".

Alun Davies, Labour MS for Blaenau Gwent and a former minister, said the UK government was in "danger of repeating the same mistakes as the Liberal Democrats made in 2010, by accepting a Conservative economic analysis and then becoming the over-enthusiastic supporters of Tory austerity".

Davies said if people in his constituency are not able to receive support as a consequence of the decisions "then they will be the wrong decisions".

He suggested the UK government should have spoken to the Welsh government before the publication of the green paper which set out the proposals, and called for "the most vulnerable people in Wales" to be "protected from the damaging consequences of some of these decisions".

Jenny Rathbone, Cardiff Central Labour MS, said while a £3 increase in universal credit was welcome, it was "overwhelmingly overshadowed by the £5bn that the UK government is wanting to cut from these benefits".

Hefin David, Caerphilly Labour MS, said he was "happy to take" Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall "at her word when she said... the green paper is the beginning of the conversation and not the end point".

But he said he was concerned at "some of the language" in the document relating to individuals with mental health conditions, saying some people could be autistic and undiagnosed.

"If the level that they have to reach in order to qualify for a PIP is raised, yet they have an underlying condition, I would like the UK government to consider that those PIPs cannot be removed, or any support be removed, until they've gone through the diagnostic process."

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: "The last fortnight has been revealing in several respects: a Westminster Labour government announcing welfare changes that will penalise the most vulnerable - a Labour Welsh government silent in the face of a storm of protest."

Welsh Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds said cutting benefits "is a total false economy".

She said disabled people's medical needs "will increase, more people will be pushed into poverty".

The Conservatives in Westminster have said that the changes were "too little, too late" and needed to be "tougher".

But in the Senedd, Altaf Hussain of the Welsh Conservatives, said: "The pathways to work green paper is causing real and deep concern amongst those in receipt of health-related benefits across the length and breadth of Wales.

"This is just adding to the concerns for our disabled constituents, which will not be addressed by this debate today."

Jane Hutt, social justice minister, said she wanted to reassure people that the "Welsh government will make sure our voices, and most importantly, the voices of disabled people and their representatives, are heard by the UK government".

During her speech, ex-minister Lee Waters said: "Isn't the problem the feeling that the savings are motivated by a need to meet a notional cut in the Office for Budgetary Responsibility forecasts, not in a first-principles exercise about how to deliver an optimal welfare system."

He said the Welsh government "should say loud and clear that that is the wrong starting point".

"I think we have reserved judgment, haven't we," said Hutt.

"The first minister has made that very clear. What we do need to do is that we need to understand the evidence that is coming forward about the impacts of these proposals."

Later, in a debate on child poverty, Hutt said she had "strongly" complained about the "adverse impact" of the two-child benefit cap to her Labour colleagues in UK government.

The two child benefit cap was introduced by the previous Conservative UK government in 2017 - the Welsh government has called for it to be abolished for years.

The UK Labour government has not committed to scrapping the cap.

Hutt said Cardiff "was the local authority with the highest number of children affected by the two child benefit cap".

She quoted figures that parents who have a third or subsequent child after April 2017 are denied £3,235 per year, per child.

Hutt said she had "called on this to be addressed as part of the UK government child poverty strategy".

"That message comes strongly from myself and the Welsh government," she said.