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Poverty in Wales: Jobs help planned by Welsh government Poverty in Wales: 5,000 work and training places in poverty plan
(about 7 hours later)
Targets to help people into work will be unveiled when the Welsh government updates its plans to combat poverty. Hundreds of households in Wales where no adult is working are to be offered work and training under new plans to tackle poverty.
It will pledge to offer training and work opportunities to households where no-one works. "Personalised, intensive support" will be given to the long-term unemployed, including 5,000 work and training places.
There are also expected to be targets to improve the education of children from the least well-off backgrounds. The Welsh government's Tackling Poverty Action Plan also aims to improve school attainment for the poorest children.
The Tackling Poverty Action Plan was launched in June last year, with a commitment to refresh it after 12 months. The opposition called it "warm words" after little progress had been made.
The Welsh government has committed itself to eradicating child poverty by 2020, although the Children's Commissioner last year expressed doubts about whether the target could be met. First Minister Carwyn Jones promised to leave "no stone unturned" .
Mr Jones said: "This plan is a clear commitment, right across the Welsh government, that we will use our resources to help those currently most in need and prevent future generations experiencing poverty.
"These are hard times - a flat lining economy, the biggest shake-up to the benefits system in 60 years, public spending cuts and rising living costs.
"Despite this, sitting back and watching the costs associated with poverty escalate is not an option."
The Tackling Poverty Action Plan was first launched in June last year, with a commitment to refresh it after 12 months.
As well as helping the long-term out of work to find a job, the latest plans includes targets to rescue the number of young people who are not earning or learning and ambitions to improve the nation's health.
Other targets include:
After accounting for the cost of housing, around a third of children in Wales are from homes classed as living in poverty.After accounting for the cost of housing, around a third of children in Wales are from homes classed as living in poverty.
Statistics released last month show the figure, which has changed little in recent years, rose from 31% to 33%.Statistics released last month show the figure, which has changed little in recent years, rose from 31% to 33%.
Children are classed as being in relative poverty if they are from a household that lives on less than 60% of the median - or middle - income.Children are classed as being in relative poverty if they are from a household that lives on less than 60% of the median - or middle - income.
Labour AM Vaughan Gething was appointed to a newly-created post of deputy minister for tackling poverty by First Minister Carwyn Jones last week. Measures to help people find work include six pilot projects in Communities First areas, which will offer the 5,000 opportunities to adults in workless households to find training and jobs.
He said the action plan would show a determination to tackle what is known as the inverse care law - a tendency for the people who needed help the most to receive the least assistance. On helping families and children in poverty, ministers say they are doubling investment in the Flying Start programme which provides childcare for two-year-olds in deprived areas.
"We know that the most significant barriers are the deliberate policies being undertaken by the UK government," he said. More than £33m is going directly to schools in the pupil deprivation grant to invest in ways of tackling the impact of poverty on children's attainment.
"But rather than being an excuse, that's an additional reason for us to do all that we can. Communities and Tackling Poverty Minister Jeff Cuthbert, who launched the plan with the first minister, said: "Our ambition is to see a Wales were we break the link between being born poor and spending a lifetime in poverty.
"We cannot and will not surrender our communities to a future of entrenched poverty." "Helping people into work is an important part of this and we will focus our efforts on creating 5,000 opportunities for people in households where there is no adult in employment.
The Welsh government is also expected to give a commitment to improve the health of people in deprived communities when the targets are unveiled later. "We want to do this because unemployment can have an impact on so many aspects of life."
Shadow Communities Minister Mark Isherwood said it was "more warm words about tackling poverty" from a government which had made little progress in meeting its anti-poverty commitments during almost a decade and a half in power.
Lib Dem social justice spokesman Peter Black added: "It goes without saying that we all share the aspirations that are laid out in the Tackling Poverty Plan.
"However, what's important is the outcomes these initiatives deliver."