Job seekers to work for benefits according to new government green paper

Last Modified: 21 Jul 2008
By: Gary Gibbon

People on job seekers allowance will have to work for their benefits under new proposals in the government's welfare green paper.

Benefit claimants suffering from drug addiction will be forced to seek treatment, while incapacity benefit will be scrapped as part of the plans to be unveiled this afternoon.

The proposed shake-up to the welfare system comes as unemployment reaches its highest level since 1997.

After a year on the dole, claimants will have to complete four weeks of community service, and they will have to do that full time if they remain out of work for two years.

It's all part of what the work and pensions secretary James Purnell describes as a "radical overhaul" of the welfare and benefits system.