Judith Collins MP
National Party Welfare Spokeswoman

16 May 2006

Table the advice on single core benefit

National Party MP Judith Collins is calling on David Benson-Pope to release ALL the papers connected with the single core benefit when more details on the project are announced in the Budget.

"Labour has been talking about the single core benefit since 1989. We expect there'll be a sizeable amount of advice to the Minister and previous Ministers. Mr Benson-Pope should make that available to the public."

Ms Collins says her attempts to have the information released through parliamentary questions have hit a brick wall.

"I note that there's been a leak suggesting there will be more detail about the single core benefit in the Budget.

"Given that just a couple of weeks ago the Minister couldn't tell us what it would be called, and appeared to back away from the term 'single core benefit', we are looking forward to seeing the evidence that supports this change."

Ms Collins says she's not holding her breath.

"So far, we've seen nothing that suggests a single core benefit will help one beneficiary into work, or improve the benefit payment process. More vacuous spin on Budget day just won't cut it."

ENDS

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