English: I thank the Minister for bringing this statement today. It is very expensive to be poor. You pay more for energy via tokens, you are more likely to live in a very poorly insulated house, you go to bed early to avoid heating costs, and in winter you wake up to windows with ice from your breath on the inside. Rent has gone up, gas has gone up, electricity has gone up, the general cost of living has gone up to a point where people have less to spend on food, and many value products have increased far more than the general increase in the cost of food. People are eating less or skipping meals, or are having less nutritious food, bulking out on white rice and pasta and cutting out the more expensive fresh fruit and vegetables, and producing filling meals, not nutritious meals. And, of course, in the end, children eat and parents don't. I welcome the Welsh Government's actions - I won't name them all, but things such as help with fuel costs support, the cost of sending your children to school, Healthy Start vouchers, support for hundreds of thousands of people with council tax bills every year, and I also welcome the two successful 'Claim what's yours' campaigns, and the most recent was very successful. Does the Minister agree, however, that the most effective action would be to strip out the built-in five-week delay for the first universal credit payment, which drives people into poverty immediately, and to reverse the universal credit cut? This is not a panacea that will solve all the problems, but it would make what is very bad just bad.
Welsh: Rwy'n diolch i'r Gweinidog am roi'r datganiad hwn gerbron heddiw. Busnes costus iawn yw bod yn dlawd. Rydych chi'n talu mwy am ynni gyda thalebau rhagdalu, rydych chi'n fwy tebygol o fyw mewn tŷ sydd ag inswleiddio gwael iawn, rydych chi'n mynd i'r gwely yn gynnar i osgoi costau gwresogi, ac yn y gaeaf rydych chi'n deffro i weld rhew o'ch anadl chi ar y tu mewn i'ch ffenestri chi. Mae rhent wedi codi, mae nwy wedi codi, mae trydan wedi codi, mae costau byw cyffredinol wedi codi hyd at bwynt pan fo gan bobl lai i'w wario ar fwyd, ac mae llawer o gynhyrchion rhesymol wedi codi llawer iawn mwy yn eu pris na'r cynnydd cyffredinol yng nghost bwyd. Mae pobl yn bwyta llai neu'n colli prydau bwyd, neu'n bwyta llai o fwyd maethlon, yn bwyta pethau sy'n llenwi fel reis gwyn a phasta ac yn hepgor ffrwythau a llysiau ffres sy'n costio mwy, ac yn gwneud prydau bwyd sy'n llenwi, ond heb fod yn brydau maethlon. Ac, wrth gwrs, yn y pen draw, mae'r plant yn cael bwyd a'u rheini nhw'n gwneud heb fwyd. Rwyf i'n croesawu camau Llywodraeth Cymru - nid wyf i am eu henwi nhw i gyd, ond pethau fel cymorth gyda chostau tanwydd, a chost anfon eich plant i'r ysgol, talebau Cychwyn Iach, cymorth i gannoedd o filoedd o bobl bob blwyddyn o ran biliau'r dreth gyngor, ac rwyf i'n croesawu dwy ymgyrch lwyddiannus 'Hawlio'r hyn sy'n ddyledus i chi', ac fe fu'r un ddiweddaraf yn llwyddiannus iawn. A yw'r Gweinidog yn cytuno, serch hynny, mai'r cam mwyaf effeithiol fyddai diddymu'r oedi o bum wythnos ar gyfer y taliad credyd cynhwysol cyntaf, sy'n gyrru pobl i dlodi ar unwaith, a gwyrdroi'r toriad o ran credyd cynhwysol? Nid fyddai hynny'n datrys y problemau i gyd, ond fe fyddai hynny'n gwella rhyw ychydig ar sefyllfa enbyd iawn.