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Plaid Cymru calls on First Minister to publish Liz Kendall response ‘without delay.’
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has written to Wales' First Minister urging her to publish the response she has received from the UK Government regarding sweeping reforms to the benefits system "in full" and "without delay".
Speaking on BBC Wales’ Politics Wales programme on Sunday (March 30) Labour MP for the Vale of Glamorgan, Kanishka Narayan said: "She’s written to the Work & Pensions Secretary. I understand that she’s received a response."
Baroness Eluned Morgan originally wrote to the UK Government on March 11, requesting an assessment of the impact of welfare changes on Wales before any plans were published.
However, on Wednesday the First Minister expressed her disappointment that she had not received a response ahead of the Chancellor’s spring statement.
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Supportive
Tensions escalated further later in the week when the FM refused to back changes to social security spending, despite the Secretary of State for Wales, Jo Stevens, claiming the First Minister was supportive of them.
Baroness Morgan told the Senedd’s Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister that she had yet to get a "firm understanding" of how the reforms will impact on Wales.
In the spring statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said changes to the "broken" benefits system will save around £4.8 billion by the end of the decade, and £1 billion will be invested "to provide guaranteed, personalised employment support to help people back into work".
An impact assessment of the reforms has warned that 250,000 people - including 50,000 children - could fall into relative poverty as a result.
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Vulnerable
Plaid Cymru says the UK Government has a responsibility to support the most vulnerable in society and has called for details on how the changes will affect Welsh people.
In his letter to the First Minister of Wales, the leader of Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwerth MS, said: "On BBC Wales’ Politics Wales programme this morning, Labour’s Kanishka Narayan MP suggested that you have received a response from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall MP, to your original letter regarding the impact of Welfare reforms on Wales.
"Given the significant consequences these reforms will have on the people of Wales I urge you to publish the response in full, without delay."
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