All unemployed people on benefits should prepare themselves to look for work, or undertake unpaid work, or risk having their entitlement stopped for up to four weeks at a time, according to a government-commissioned report.
All unemployed people on benefits should prepare themselves to look for work, or undertake unpaid work, or risk having their entitlement stopped for up to four weeks at a time, according to a government-commissioned report.
Plans for single parents with children as young as seven to do community service jobs or spend a full day looking for work have been criticised by trade unions and left-wing Labour MPs as reactionary and punitive attacks on the poor, but are bound to be part of the tough approach to benefits by Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell.
A welfare reform bill in the Queen's Speech today will incorporate many of the recommendations of the report by Professor Paul Gregg and a white paper consulting on the proposals in January will be form part of the government's drive to get more people into work and cut down the numbers on benefit.
Until recently, lone parents did not have to seek work to claim benefits until their youngest child was 16, but that is being reduced to 12. By October 2010, those whose youngest child is seven or over will have to seek work. Professor Gregg's report suggests that parents of younger children should also be preparing themselves for work.
As the government unveiled the report, the Conservative think-tank set up by Iain Duncan Smith came forward with ideas to reward council house tenants with shared ownership of their homes if they exhibit "good behaviour" such as finding work or ensuring the education of their children. The former Tory leader's Centre for Social Justice said there should be more "incentives" for people trying to come off benefits into work.
Professor Gregg, of Bristol University, recommended a swift escalation of sanctions for jobseekers who fail to turn up at meetings and interviews. After a written warning for a first transgression, they would thereafter lose a week's Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) each time they did not comply with conditions. After a fourth offence, they would be required to undertake community service. If they refused, they would lose four weeks' JSA.
TUC general-secretary Brendan Barber said the government vision assumed a utopian world of unrestricted childcare and widely available jobs where only the lazy opt for life on the dole.
"The reality is very different. Thousands of people are joining the dole queue every day through no fault of their own. Draconian workfare policies are not the answer," said Mr Barber.
