MORE children could be taken into care if families “cannot afford them”, a councillor has warned, as a committee hears that poverty and hardship in Ceredigion worsened during the pandemic and is “likely to get worse again” in the face of increasing costs and cuts to Universal Credit.

Councillors discussed a report looking back at the work undertaken to tackle hardship in the county overseen by the Ceredigion Public Services Board (PSB) poverty sub-group earlier this year at a meeting of the corporate resources overview and scrutiny on Thursday, 14 October.

Ceredigion council leader Cllr Ellen ap Gwynn told committee members that “hardship has worsened during the covid period and this report is for the mid-covid period,” highlighting the work being done to collect and analyse data “to enable us to keep our finger on the pulse of what’s working and what isn’t working.”

The council tackling hardship strategy has three key objectives – essential living costs, physical and emotional well-being, community resilience – and an action plan with 65 points delivered by a range of PSB partners, a report to committee states.

The action plan is a ‘live’ document and the framework is being adapted to ensure that multi-agency issues of concerns can be updated, with Cllr ap Gwynn adding “we know things will not improve for those at the bottom of the scale now the Universal Credit has been cut.”

The number of people on Universal Credit – employed or unemployed – in Ceredigion saw a sharp increase between March and April 2020, where a table in the report indicates went from 2,110 to 3,415 - increasing again to 4,717 in March 2021 - before decreasing to 4,654 in June 2021, the latest figures available.

At the meeting, Cllr Bryan Davies highlighted to members the “detrimental impact” of rising fuel costs, a concern which was shared by Cllr ap Gwynn.

She said there was “no doubt” people would be impacted by rising fuel costs, and that “must be considered.”

Cllr Lloyd Edwards raised his concern to members that increased costs and cuts to Universal Credit could lead to more children being taken into care if families cannot “afford them”.

Data provided to the committee in a report showed that, pre-pandemic, the “child poverty rates in Ceredigion have increased above the Welsh average.”

Cllr Lyndon Lloyd highlighted the issue of elderly poverty.

The PSB Poverty sub-group said: “A great deal of support has been provided by colleagues and partners to mitigate the impact of hardship caused by the pandemic.

“We must rely on hard data to tell us if we are making a difference however.

“We will continue to develop the data dashboards to ensure we have a shared understanding of the evolving impact of Covid-19 on hardship in Ceredigion through the collation and analysis of data.”

The report put before members said that “good progress is being made”, but that “further steps are needed” to deal with hardship in the county.

Some of the key figures from the report:

• A 63 per cent increase in free school meals receiving a voucher when schools are closed, up from 953 in September 2019 to 1,557 as of January 2021

• £356,593 paid out in discretionary housing payment

• 98 people were helped by the Care Society to access temporary accommodation

• 405 ‘food runs’ to get essential food to their clients were made by the Care Society who also provided 218 emergency food parcels

• 20,437 food parcels and well-being packs were distributed across the county through the Porth Cymorth Cynnar Early Intervention Service through the council and third sector agencies

• 600 children, young people and their families received welfare calls

• 269 families were supported by Ceredigion Family Centre Network - with activity and wellbeing packs distributed to families every three months along with food parcels and slow cookers to those in need.

• 107 first time central heating systems installed through the Warmer Homes Fund

• Universal Credit claimants in Ceredigion hit a high of 4,717 in March 2021