Plaid Cymru will use existing legislation to pilot £10 top-up child benefit payments

Martin Shipton

Plaid Cymru says it will use a little known piece of legislation to pilot a scheme that would provide a £10 per week top-up payment per child for families receiving universal credit.

Some political observers have questioned whether a future Welsh government would have the power to make such a payment.

In its initial response to Plaid Cymru’s manifesto published on April 9, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said: “Plaid Cymru also propose trialling and then, if successful, rolling out nationally Cynnal, a Welsh child payment of initially £10 per child per week for children in families in receipt of universal credit. This would modestly reduce child poverty.

“As we discussed in a recent report, it is unclear whether existing powers allow the Senedd to legislate for such regular, general top-ups to benefits – social security is explicitly reserved to the UK parliament in the case of Wales. Perhaps with this in mind, Plaid Cymru say they would ‘press the UK government on devolving welfare powers to Wales, on a par with Scotland’, which does have the power to provide general top-ups to benefits. It is unclear whether such powers would be granted.”

The reference to a recent report is to an IFS report published in March called The Welsh Government’s Record on Tax and Benefit Policy which stated much the same: “Limited devolution of benefit policy constrains the extent to which Wales can diverge from the system that operates in England. “Where powers are devolved and used, the Welsh Government has generally chosen to be more generous.

“The most significant example is the council tax reduction scheme, but the Welsh Government has also used its powers to extend access to free school meals and to fund payments administered by councils (including one-off means-tested energy cost support during winter of 2022–23). Unlike in Scotland, in Wales the power to create new ‘social security’ benefits, or to top-up existing benefits, is explicitly reserved to the UK which means that creating a Welsh equivalent of the Scottish child payment may not be possible.”

We asked Plaid Cymru whether the party had received legal advice that top-up payments would be lawful.

A spokesperson for the party said: “Section 60 of the Wales Act 2006 gives Welsh Ministers broad power to do anything they consider appropriate to promote or improve the economic, social or environmental well-being of Wales.

“It is under this power that the outgoing Labour Welsh Government delivered its Basic Income pilot for care leavers, and it would convey the same power to pilot Cynnal – the Welsh Child Payment.

“The pilot will allow us to build the evidence base and the case for the devolution of the full powers we need to roll-out the payment in full, Wales-wide.

“Ultimately, this is about doing what we know works to tackle child poverty, as we’ve seen in Scotland. This is action the next Welsh Government must take to start undoing the mess caused by 27 years of Labour rule here in Wales. Plaid Cymru will always fight for those who need our support the most.”

However, it may be some time before the £10 weekly payment is rolled out across Wales.

Pilot scheme

The Welsh Government’s Universal Basic Income (UBI) project for care leavers was a pilot scheme launched in July 2022, offering £1,600 gross per month to eligible young people leaving care for two years. The scheme aimed to address the challenges faced by care leavers transitioning to adulthood, providing a stable financial foundation to help with issues like poverty and unemployment.

It ran from July 2022 until June 2023, with a total of 644 individuals participating. The evaluation of the pilot is ongoing, with the final evaluation expected in 2027.