PLAID Cymru will campaign for welfare to be devolved to Wales in the wake of Lord Freud’s suggestion that disabled people were not worth the minimum wage.

Councillor Ian Johnson said yesterday that the former Labour and now Tory welfare adviser’s comments were part of Westminster’s “blame the victim” culture.

A “right-wing race to the bottom” was, Mr Johnson continued, mainstreaming policies that “create poverty and misery just to meet the ideological needs of financial markets.”

He added: “We must prepare for the devolution of welfare by developing a framework for a Welsh employment and benefits system.”

His motion mandates party leaders to win powers to create and set benefits for Wales, along with responsibility for jobcentres.

PCS national executive member Marianne Owens supported powers being taken out of Con-Dem hands.

“I work in the tax office and we have looked at the sums for this. We think devolving welfare could create jobs in Wales,” she said.

“Three tax offices are closing in Wales which means we’re losing experienced tax workers at a time when we have £120 billion in uncollected tax.

“That could be used to wipe out the deficit and fund public services.”

Plaid’s welfare plan was proposed after Lord Freud suggested the government should allow bosses to pay disabled workers as little as £2 an hour and top up their wage through the new universal credit benefits.

But Plaid MP Hywel Williams warned that universal credit was “on the threshold of disaster” — despite £400 million having been spent on the computer systems alone.

lukejames@peoples-press.com