KEY POINTS:
National leader John Key says the financial support scheme to be unveiled this week would most likely be a grant, not a loan, to people who lost their jobs in the recession and could not meet their mortgage payments.
He indicated it would be a temporary measure and means-tested. The funding of it would not impact on the deficit.
That lends weight to the suggestion that the support would be funded from the fees the Government is charging banks for the deposit guarantee scheme - expected to amount to about $100 million.
He said the scheme would not differentiate between people who lost their job through incompetence or through the downturn.
Green MP Sue Bradford, a former activist for unemployed workers, said the scheme was "seriously flawed".
It demonstrated Mr Key's lack of understanding of the practicalities of administering a national social security system.
"Mr Key's compassion for the middle-income unemployed is leading him to design a bureaucratic nightmare on the hoof."
Mr Key said the administration of the plan would not require more frontline staff for the Ministry of Social Development.
And he indicated that National's package would include retraining assistance.
