Wales's £10 child payment waits on the UK government. Will it say yes by 17 Nov?
Wales plans £10 a week for 15,000 young children if the UK government says the money is free of tax and benefit cuts. Its budget is on 17 November.
What happened
We need to make sure that the numbers work and there are no unintended consequences.
Wales wants to pay £10 a week for 15,000 young children. The payment, called Cynnal, is for children under six in families on universal credit, the main UK benefit for people on low incomes. In September Welsh finance minister Elin Jones asked the UK government to make sure the money is not taxed and does not reduce benefits.
The UK Budget on did not give that answer. On Welsh Secretary Stephen Kinnock, the UK government’s minister for Wales, said officials were “working together” and the talks were “absolutely positive”. He said the numbers still had to be checked, and he gave no date.
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.
Elin Jones, Welsh finance minister, to BBC Wales, 29 October 2026
The Welsh government, led by Plaid Cymru, will publish its draft budget for 2027-28 on . In October it proposed £2m to start a trial of Cynnal, and the Senedd votes on that budget on . Jones says the UK Budget leaves Wales with less money once rising prices are counted, and the UK Treasury denies this.
Wales has also asked to borrow more and to use more of its savings. Its reserve is capped at £385m, and it can borrow up to £165m a year. After meeting Prime Minister Andy Burnham on , First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said it was now a matter of “how and when”. Kinnock said: “I can’t give you a specific time frame as things stand”.
Sources: BBC (2), Senedd Research, BBC, WalesOnline
The Pattern
We looked for cases where Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland asked the UK government to change a UK rule on money: to keep a new payment free of tax or benefit cuts, or to loosen limits on borrowing and savings. We found six such requests since 2019, four from Scotland and two from Wales. The UK government agreed in full or in part four times, but only once within 77 days.
Show the other 4 cases
The Read
The UK government agreed in some form to four of the six requests, but its answers on new payments came between the same day and 171 days, and changes to borrowing rules took about two years. Only the 2020 Scottish carer payments got a yes within 77 days, the time from Jones’s September letter to . The two refusals on payments were one-off £500 payments, and both times the UK government said the devolved government could pay extra to cover the tax.
There are reasons for doubt. Each time it was the same government deciding, in London, and four of the six requests came from Scotland. Both full yeses were Scottish payments, and both came through orders under the Scotland Act, the law that sets out Scotland’s powers. Wales has proposed £2m for a trial, with a Senedd vote on , and Kinnock calls the talks positive, but he has given no date.
Sources: legislation.gov.uk (2), BBC (2, 3), Scottish Government, Welsh Government, Senedd Research
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