, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Okay. Altaf, you wanted to come in on this.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Briefly, because we are running out of time—so, if you could keep your answers brief.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Okay. Sioned, you had a further question.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Jason, is there something you want to add to what the others have said?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Who wants to go on that—arrears in social tenancies, basically?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Who would like to go first? Gwennan?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Okay, thank you. Can we now move on to housing debt? Altaf.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Okay. I suggest, as we've opened up the thorny issue of council tax, that we go to Sioned on council tax debt, and I'll then come back to you on housing.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Okay. Altaf, what was your question on? On what we've already—
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Hang on a sec. One second, Altaf. Jane, did you have a supplementary, or can I go—?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Okay. Altaf wanted to come in. Jane, did you have a supplementary, or—?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Gwen, do you want to add to that?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Okay. Before I go on to Jane, who's going to ask about council tax, Vikki, did you have any further questions on this area? No. Okay, fine. Jane, that neatly moves us on, as Peter's already mentioned the thorny issue of council tax.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Who wants to go first?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Vikki, could I just bring Altaf in to follow-up what's already been said?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
I grasped that from your answer, but thank you very much for outlining that, which is now on the record. I'm now going to turn to Vikki Howells, who's going to ask you some questions about exactly who are these people who are struggling with debt. Vikki.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Okay. Peter, you wanted to come back in.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Okay. I think the issue is that I'm sure that you'll always be able to do more with more money. Local authorities themselves are one of the organisations that are suffering from indebtedness by people not paying their council tax, for example. So, were they…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Okay. We'll come back to some of the issues you've all raised, but just before we move on, the Welsh Government increased funding for the single advice fund by £1.1 million in this financial year, so what's your assessment of the level of funding being…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Thank you, Jason. Gwennan, apologies. What's the perspective from Citizens Advice?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Oh, I'm sorry, I beg your pardon.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Thank you, Peter, for that initial analysis of where we're at from StepChange's point of view. Jason, is there anything you want to add from a Citizens Advice point of view?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Debt and the pandemic—Advice organisations
Welcome back to the second scrutiny session of the Equality and Social Justice Committee, and I'm very pleased to welcome our three witnesses who are opening our inquiry into the impact of debt from the pandemic. So, welcome to Gwennan Hardy, Peter Tutton and…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Scrutiny session with the Minister for Social Justice
So, I think I just want to move us into private session briefly, and I just wondered if the person who's managing the broadcasting can tell us when we're no longer in public session.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Scrutiny session with the Minister for Social Justice
Thank you, that's extremely helpful. That neatly brings us to the end of this session, and I thank you and Hannah Blythyn for your contributions, and also those of your officials. You will obviously be sent a transcript of this discussion, and obviously it's…
