Myfanwy fights to keep Jobforce scheme to help Llanelli’s children out of poverty

Responding figures that show an increase in the number of children living in poverty in Wales, Dr Myfanwy Davies Plaid’s Westminster Candidate for Llanelli has strongly criticised Government plans to cut funding for a scheme that helps Llanelli’s lone parents back into work or training.
Myfanwy is joining the fight to save a scheme offered by jobforce Wales that provides free childcare to lone parents so the can work or complete the training they need to return to work.
Myfanwy said:
“The official figures show more children in Wales slipping back into poverty which will have a huge effect on the choices they have in life. Next week Parliament will discuss the Child Poverty Bill that aims to take some of the positive steps our Assembly has already taken towards eradicating child poverty. I welcome the debate and it is a wholly good thing to introduce targets for raising parents’ income such as those proposed in the Bill. But those targets are meaningless while Gordon Brown is still planning vicious cuts in schemes that help parents back to work”.
“One very concrete example of the UK Government’s failure to deal with child poverty is the fact that the New Deal for Lone Parents in Llanelli has come to the end of its funding. There are dozens of lone parents in Llanelli who have expressed an interest in taking up training but can’t do so because they do not have the resources to look after their kids. I will be raising this issue with our AM Helen Mary Jones in her role as Chair of the Assembly Children’s Committee”.
“It is all very well for Gordon Brown and his self-serving MPs to set targets they know will not be met they need to take this chance to put the needs of our families in Llanelli first”.
Diwedd / Ends
Notes to Editor:
In Wales, 32% of children now face living in a home which has less than 60% of the average UK household income. In 1999, the average level of risk that that Welsh child would be in a household that fell below the poverty line was 35%.
While the level of poverty appears to be rising in Wales, in Scotland the rate continues to fall, now standing at 25% of children at risk. Northern Ireland has also kept poverty levels stable at 26%.
Link to the full Rowntree Foundation Report:http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/end-child-poverty-wales-summary.pdf
Next Tuesday Parliament will begin to discuss The Child Poverty Bill that will require the Government reports on progress towards eradicating child poverty and includes targets on increasing family income