Wellington, Feb 17 NZPA - The Labour Party tried to find out in Parliament today how much money was going to be allocated for the new Whanau Ora social services scheme but it was told to wait for the May 20 budget.

Whanau Ora has been developed by the Maori Party but details of how it will work are not known and Labour says the policy is a shambles.

It is designed to bring together all the agencies involved in family support and deliver it more effectively to struggling families.

Non-government organisations will be involved in delivering it, and the Maori Party appeared to initially believe it would be for Maori families only.

But Prime Minister John Key has said it will be open to all families and there will be no preferential treatment.

In Parliament today Labour's Annette King asked Social Development Minister Paula Bennett whether she agreed Whanau Ora was a whole-of-government concept which used a structured process of government agencies and community organisations working together to achieve better education, housing, health and social outcomes, with government and non-government organisations participating.

Ms Bennett replied "yes" and Ms King said she had just read out the description of the Strengthening Families programme, which had been operating for six years.

"Why are we going through this pretence to New Zealanders that the Government has got a new programme for vulnerable families, and wasting time and money pulling the wool over their eyes?" she said.

Ms Bennett said families were still struggling and current programmes were "driving stuff from Wellington" into areas where it didn't work.

"We're actually talking about something that's grassroots...and works in quite a different way," she said.

Ms King asked how much money for it would come from the Social Development Ministry.

"Wait and see. There will be announcements in the budget," Ms Bennett said.

Earlier in question time Finance Minister Bill English said Whanau Ora was "part of a suite of initiatives which will contribute to the Government's aspirational agenda for New Zealand by eliminating the continued waste of overlapping programmes so we can increase our social capital, improve the welfare of families and achieve better value for taxpayer funding".

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