Talks over Plaid £10 child poverty payment positive, says Welsh secretary

Welsh Secretary Stephen Kinnock says "positive" talks are taking place over Plaid Cymru's flagship plans for a payment for Wales' poorest parents.

Plaid ministers in Cardiff want to trial offering £10 a week for 15,000 children aged under six, in households already receiving universal credit.

Finance Minister Elin Jones has asked for the payment - known as Cynnal - to be exempt from taxation and disregarded from benefits.

Jones said she could not see a reason why the UK government could not move quickly.

Kinnock told BBC Wales that officials in the Welsh government and the Department of Work and Pensions were "working together" on the issue.

Cynnal was a key pledge of Plaid's election campaign in May.

There have been concerns the payment could be treated as regular income, unless the UK government made an exemption for it.

Kinnock said: "We are clear that officials in the Department of Work and Pensions and Welsh government officials are working together on Cynnal.

"We are absolutely positive about that.

"We need to make sure that the numbers work and there are no unintended consequences."

Cynnal was one of the items put in a list of requests to the UK government by Wales' finance minister Elin Jones, ahead of Wednesday's budget.

Jones said: "It was in the UK government's gift to confirm a decision on that in the Budget. They've not done so, which means that we're still uncertain as to whether this exemption will be given to the Cynnal child payment.

"I don't see any reason why the UK government can't move reasonably quickly now on this decision, because it is something, hopefully, that is in their interests as well, to see Welsh government look to tackle child poverty in Wales."

"We can't start this payment before we've had the clarity from the UK government that the payment will be exempt from taxation and benefits," she added.

Jones wrote for the Chancellor John Healey's support in September to ensure payments made through the Cynnal programme remained "exempt from taxation and disregarded for benefit calculations".

The Budget on Wednesday saw an extra £450m for the Welsh government over three years.

Much of it is triggered by two schemes in England - cuts to business rates and a £100 payment scheme to help people with their energy bills.

The Welsh government announced that it would implement a similar assistance programme for households in council tax bands A-D.

Ministers said the extra money amounted to a "real-terms cut" below the rate of inflation, but that was denied by the UK government.