LAST Friday I was pleased to join Citizens Advice as a speaker at an event looking at the early effects of welfare reform in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.

It was an opportunity to learn about data collected by CAB, and to hear people speak about how welfare changes introduced by the present Tory and previous Coalition governments have directly affected their lives.

The changes are too numerous to list in a short piece like this, but the Coalition government’s reforms (many still to be implemented) include the introduction of Universal Credit (UC, to eventually replace income-based JSA, income-related ESA, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Housing Benefit, all of which will be abolished); a new sanction regime for JSA and ESA claimants; the introduction of PIP to replace DLA for working age people; introduction of a benefit cap; and the creation of the hated ‘bedroom tax’ for tenants in social housing deemed too big for their needs.

The current Tory government has announced a further package of reforms, including a four-year freeze in working age benefit rates; a reduction in ‘work allowances’ for most UC claimants; a limit on the per-child element in tax credits and UC; a reduction in the household benefits cap; and the abolition of the ESA work-related activity component for new ESA claims from next year.

All this will no doubt save money – but at what cost to families?

The IFS have projected that child poverty will rise significantly by 2020 - almost entirely reversing the progress made under the last Labour Government – with 2.6 million working families on UC set to be £1600 a year worse off by the end of this Parliament due to the cuts.

And while these may be projected figures, there is a very real impact being felt right now (and indeed for several years now), and this is something I and my staff deal with day in, day out, through the casework we carry out for constituents.

Hardworking families struggling to make ends meet, parents relying on foodbanks to feed their children, people left with literally no money between claims or while complex cases are dealt with. These are real problems, and they are happening in this constituency right now.

That’s why I and my Labour colleagues will continue to hold this government to account for its decisions, which are only serving to increase poverty and inequality in our society.