Tax credit question to Social Justice Minister

Bethan Jenkins: I also welcome the £3 million in extra resources going in to an awareness campaign on benefit take-up. My only concern is that the recent centralisation of services through the Department for Work and Pensions will severely hinder any development that we will be able to undertake in Wales. The Public and Commercial Services union has said that the new system is rigid and bureaucratic and that we are now moving towards telephone lines where 20 million people have been reported as not being able to access key services. What representations will you be making to your colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions in relation to this situation?

Brian Gibbons: There is an awareness that one of the big problems is not so much that people are unaware of their entitlements but of how to access those entitlements. Certainly, in the previous scheme on benefit uptake, the more successful organisations were those that gave real practical help to the claimants rather than simply attempting to increase awareness about entitlement. So, I would expect this scheme to build on that good practice and for the individual schemes to give real practical, pragmatic help to claimants so that they can overcome many of the problems that you have outlined.

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Bethan Jenkins: Yr wyf finnau’n croesawu’r £3 miliwn o adnoddau ychwanegol i’w rhoi mewn ymgyrch i godi ymwybyddiaeth pobl o hawlio budd-daliadau. Yr unig bryder sydd gennyf yw y gwnaiff y broses ddiweddar o ganoli gwasanaethau drwy’r Adran Gwaith a Phensiynau lesteirio’n ddifrifol unrhyw ddatblygiad y gallwn ei gyflawni yng Nghymru. Mae Undeb y Gwasanaethau Cyhoeddus a Masnachol wedi dweud bod y system newydd yn anhyblyg ac yn fiwrocrataidd a’n bod yn awr yn symud at linellau ffôn lle mae 20 miliwn o bobl wedi’u cofnodi fel pobl na allant hawlio budd-daliadau. Pa sylwadau y byddwch yn eu gwneud i’ch cyd-Weinidogion yn yr Adran Gwaith a Phensiynau yng nghyswllt y sefyllfa hon?

Brian Gibbons: Cydnabyddir mai un o’r problemau mawr yw nad yw pobl yn gwybod sut mae cael gafael ar eu hawliau yn hytrach na’r ffaith nad ydynt yn ymwybodol o’r hawliau hynny. Yn sicr, yn y cynllun blaenorol ar hawlio budd-daliadau, y mudiadau mwyaf llwyddiannus oedd y rheini a roddodd help ymarferol gwirioneddol i’r hawlwyr yn hytrach na chodi ymwybyddiaeth yn unig am hawliau. Felly, byddwn yn disgwyl i’r cynllun hwn adeiladu ar yr arfer da hwnnw a bod y cynlluniau unigol yn rhoi cymorth ymarferol, pragmatig, gwirioneddol i’r hawlwyr er mwyn iddynt allu goresgyn llawer o’r problemau yr ydych wedi’u hamlinellu.

Blairism, Brownism. Is there a difference?

Bob Hart, Edwina Hart's husband has now entered the anti- Blair camp in the run up to the National Assembly elections in May. He has hit out against criticisms of the hypocritical nature of Labour AM's who supported the PCS Civil service strike. He laments that AM's 'do not share the free market zeal of disdain for working people which characterises Blairism', and that there are no plans for job cuts by the Government in Wales.

Bob Hart's attack on Blairism( what about Brownism?) may be justified, but as Jeff Evans of PCS emphasises in today's Western Mail, the fact of the matter is that job cuts in Wales are inevitable. The strategy is, after all, a Westminster based strategy. The reality is that Labour in Cardiff Bay cannot merely opt out of the implementation of this policy without taking the fight, with more strength, to their colleagues in Westminster.

In fairness, there may be a divergence of policy opinion between London and Cardiff, but if this is so, then Labour AM's should not only take part in Civil Service strikes across Wales, but they should put much more pressure on their fellow Party Members in London to put a stop to this privatisation agenda. The very fact that they have so far failed to do this shows that Labour AM's are still bound by New Labour's centralisation agenda. Until there is a change in attitude amongst Labour AM's- until there is an obvious readiness to stand up to Blair and Brown alike, this latest attempt to shrug off the Blair affect on Wales is just another sign of panic from Labour AM's.

The angry reaction by the public to Labour in Wales's double standards in supporting the strike, but failing to stop the job cuts shows that Labour will not succeed in pulling the wool over their eyes. When jobs are slashed, they will know that it was their own 'socialist' Labour Party that took such a decision, and nobody else.