Oeddech chi'n golygu to child benefit can?
Sam Tarry: ...a staggering half a trillion pounds from the UK’s public spending coffers. The impacts of those cuts have been devastating. The introduction of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 increased the number of children living in relative poverty by 600,000 in just seven years. Bizarrely, British children are now 7 cm shorter than their European counterparts, clearly because of the malnutrition, scurvy...
Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State Work and Pensions, whether he made an assessment of the potential merits of lifting the two child benefit cap during the preparation of the Spring Budget.
Drew Hendry: ...grossly unfair and unequal energy bill standing charges and using a £12 billion wealth tax to fund a £400 annual energy discount for households; reintroducing mortgage interest tax relief; capping supermarket food prices; and matching the Scottish child payment UK-wide. He could have boosted UK finances, but he chose not to do so. He could have introduced the long-overdue essentials...
Cathy Mason: Every family should be able to afford their child's school uniform and PE gear, no ifs, no buts. We can work together in the Assembly to ensure that, thus giving families the much-needed break that they deserve. I have with me in my hand today the responses from over 1,500 families to a recent party survey that we conducted. At the time, I gave a guarantee to each of those families that I...
Lord Sikka: ...policies are anti-women. For example, real wage cuts in the public sector hurt women the most, as most of the workforce is female. Other examples include the gender pay and pension gaps, the two-child benefit cap, real cuts in benefits and lower state pensions for women. Can the Minister explain why the Government do not assess the gender gap of all their policies?
Paul Givan: ..., which Mr Carroll just referred to, to strengthen measures such as avoiding single suppliers and expensive branded items; ensuring that schools develop policies with the agreement of parents and children; and issues relating specifically to the uniform, for example avoiding or limiting the number of branded items required, avoiding variation in colour and style for different year groups...
Tom Arthur: ...wrote to urge the chancellor to provide further targeted support for people who are struggling. That must include an essentials guarantee, which would provide the most basic of necessities and benefit 8.8 million families. We have again called for the abolition of the two-child limit, the benefit cap, the young parent penalty in universal credit and the bedroom tax. We are doing what we...
Kenneth Gibson: ...with alternative fully costed budget proposals. Her reply was, “There have been none.” Despite all the hot air, bluff and bluster from the Tories, Labour and the gang of four whose name escapes me, this budget is the only game in town. Opposing it will mean less money for health and social care, less for our police and fire services and no increase in social security payments for the...
Kenny MacAskill: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir George. As is clear from the speeches that have been made so far, there are two aspects to this debate: the question of the regulation of gambling, and the question of the protection of horseracing. The first, I think, requires action, because there is a significant social problem, which is a point that I will come on to and that others,...
Lord Sikka: To ask His Majesty's Government what research they have carried out, if any, to ascertain the effect of the two-child benefit cap on the lives of the affected children and their families.
Viscount Younger of Leckie: .... I also pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, for her long service in local government. It is appropriate to acknowledge the time she spent in local government. She now gives us the benefit of her knowledge and skills in this House, and we are all the better for that. I have listened with great interest to many ideas promulgated today, particularly about a co-ordinated approach...
Evelyn Tweed: ...recently quoted in the New Statesman as saying that Holyrood had been largely “a social policy parliament” and that he wanted to correct that. Given that it is clear that social security and benefit uptake are a low priority for the Labour leadership, can the cabinet secretary provide an assurance that, unlike Westminster, Holyrood will continue to challenge austerity and cruel...
Shirley-Anne Somerville: ...and downs, and it is vital for the wellbeing of any society. For too long, the Westminster approach to social security has been to provide inadequate levels of financial support, using arbitrary caps and limits to reduce the support that is available to children and families, and to unfairly stigmatise the most vulnerable people. The reckless and cruel decision making at Westminster can be...
Nuala McAllister: ...will try to keep my remarks short, but there are a number of areas on which I want to speak in particular as health spokesperson for Alliance and as a member of the Policing Board, as well as in my capacity as an Alliance MLA. I recognise that today's debate is not a vision for the future, and we must be clear on that when we make our representations to the public. None of us in the...
Jo Churchill: The Government is committed to reducing poverty, including child poverty, and supporting low-income families. We will spend around £276bn through the welfare system in Great Britain in 2023/24 including around £124bn on people of working age and children. Working age benefits will increase by 6.7% from April 2024, subject to Parliamentary approval, following a 10.1% increase in 2023/24....
Paul Givan: ...of targeted measures aimed at addressing the various outcomes that we want to achieve and which Members have all raised. I am well aware of the challenges that many parts of the early learning and childcare sector face in terms of their sustainability and difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff. I look forward to meeting parents, early learning and childcare providers, with other...
Shirley-Anne Somerville: ...here in Scotland, but that is happening amid a worsening fog of Westminster austerity. We have a contract with the people of Scotland, but that contract does not exist when it comes to reserved benefits. We could do so much more if we were not held back by, for example, the fact that universal credit is failing to support the people that it should be there for—it does not provide for...
...from the UK Government through the social security block grant; notes that this investment includes the Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods, as well as the landmark, and extended, Scottish Child Payment, which is estimated to lift 50,000 children out of relative poverty in 2024; recognises that £614 million of Scotland-only benefits are being delivered in 2024-25, which is support that...
David Linden: Rather than deal with the known policy failures within the benefits system, the Government seem to be more focused on penalising people through, for example, the two-child cap. Last week, the Labour party joined the Conservatives in prioritising lifting the cap on bankers’ bonuses rather than the two-child cap on working women. Does the Secretary of State take comfort in the fact that his...
Patricia Gibson: ...No issue is more pressing for our constituents at the moment than the cost of living crisis and its impact on living standards. The UK Government point to a range of factors to explain why, in the two years to March 2024, we have had the biggest fall in living standards since records began, as the Office for Budget Responsibility highlighted. Even as wages rise and inflation falls, there...
