Welsh Labour Members of the Senedd for Mid and West Wales, Eluned Morgan and Joyce Watson have welcomed a new £51m package of support to help families facing the cost-of-living crisis to pay their bills this winter.

The funding, which has been released from the Welsh Government’s reserves, will support lower income households, providing immediate support for people facing rising living costs this winter.

The first phase of the Household Support Fund will target the rising costs associated with heating and eating by providing families with extra help to pay their energy bills over the winter and giving extra funding to foodbanks and community food schemes.

The new fund comes as the Conservative UK Government continues to refuse to reverse its £20 cut to Universal Credit which has impacted tens of thousands of families in Wales and amid warnings from the Bank of England that inflation will rise to five per cent by the spring, which will push prices even higher.

Welcoming the new support fund, Eluned Morgan, MS for Mid and West Wales - pictured left - said: “Families in Powys are facing a cost-of-living crisis thanks to the economic choices and mismanagement of the UK Conservative Government, rising prices and the cruel £20 cut which is being imposed on those in receipt of Universal Credit.

“While the Conservatives have once again failed families, the Welsh Labour Government is stepping in and doing everything it can within the powers and budget we have to support families through what is going to be a difficult winter.”

The Conservatives, in Wales as well as across the UK, have maintained that they are putting their resources towards helping people who are working while reminding people that the “temporary Universial Credit boost” was only introduced as a short-term measure during the pandemic.

Joyce Watson, MS for Mid and West Wales - pitured right - said:“I welcome the support which has been announced to help with heating and eating pressures and I again call on Tory MPs to reverse their cut to Universal Credit and to take meaningful action to address the cost-of-living crisis which people across Powys are facing.”

Welsh Labour’s Minister for Social Justice, Jane Hutt MS, has outlined the first measures that will be funded.

More than £38m will be made available through a Winter Fuel Support Scheme for households in receipt of working age means-tested benefits.

More than £1.1m has also been provided to support and bolster foodbanks, community food partnerships and community hubs. This will help them address food poverty, food insecurity and provide a wider range of services to help people and families maximise their income, including the extension of the successful Big Bocs Bwyd project to a further 25 schools.

Further announcements about the Household Support Fund will be made in the coming weeks.

The leader of the Welsh Conservatives at Powys council Aled Davies previously criticised Welsh Labour councillors within the council who he described as being only interested in “grandstanding and political point scoring”.

Cllr Davies also condemned the use of the word “cut” with the reminder that the uplift was only ever supposed to be temporary during the pandemic.

Cllr Davies previously said: “The £20 uplift to Universal Credit was introduced to support households facing economic shock and financial disruption as a result of the pandemic. More than eight thousand families in Powys received an additional £1,000 a year.

“The Chancellor and the Government were extremely clear to MPs and the public that the £20 per week uplift was temporary and a pandemic response, just as furlough, grants and the Self Employed Support Scheme were.

“The Government kept the uplift as the economy began to get back on its feet. It is hard to argue that we should take support away from those in employment, while maintaining this pandemic measure also.”

He added: “Fundamentally this is not a cut, and to imply that a temporary increase, that was always announced as a temporary increase is a cut is ludicrous.”