Monday, 30 October 2006

Copeland: Mortgage diversions popular

United Future finance spokesperson Gordon Copeland says National MP Craig Foss has confused two different mortgage diversion schemes and should read all the papers associated with Kiwi Saver and mortgage diversion before commenting.

"Mr Foss has been muddled by the two different mortgage diversion schemes that were discussed by officials, Cabinet and me.

"The proposal rejected by Cabinet way back in February is totally different to the second mortgage diversion initiative, which I proposed.

"The first mortgage diversion proposal allowed for 100% diversion of individuals' contributions. This would have been unnecessarily complex and indeed turned Kiwi Saver into a cheque account.

"The major difference between this and the "Copeland Initiative" was that my proposal reduced this to 50%.

"Cabinet's concerns were addressed by my initiative and I believe there is reference to this in some of the papers. This was enthusiastically embraced by Treasury officials and I worked very closely with them throughout to bring my mortgage diversion initiative to fruition.

"Independent actuaries have described it as a masterly way to enable people to save for their retirement and service their mortgages at the same time.

"It has also been warmly embraced by scheme providers and banks.

"The only critic now of Kiwi Saver is the National Party," says Mr Copeland.

ENDS

© Scoop Media