The Government, acknowledging this, has made discretionary housing payments available to help local authorities compensate people hit by the charge who cannot move.
That is the core proposition for the investor," says Hutchinson. "If we reduce reoffending by more than that then the returns will increase subject to a cap on the total payments available".
But Nelson claims that the generous severance payments available to MPs could be abolished before next May, and that therefore mercenary MPs have an interest in the election being held now.
The moving of the deadline made those payments available as revenue for the 2002 budget, the Bush administration's first, but also lowered revenue this year, depressing the non-Social Security surplus.
Also on the table were limits to the fat severance payments available to bureaucrats, and measures to speed the privatisation of telecoms, electricity, fisheries and the post office, and to contract-out the management of ports.Then came a full stop.
It begins with the relatively easy process of getting emergency payments, available without obligation to eligible claimants who can prove their losses, up to six months' worth of damages at a time.
