Benefit claimants could be forced to pick up litter and erase graffiti under plans to be unveiled by ministers.
The Welfare Green Paper is set to include proposals to force those unemployed for more than two years to work full-time in the community.
Incapacity benefit will be scrapped as part of a scheme to get more people claiming the benefit back to work.
Minister James Purnell says the plans are "revolutionary". The Tories say they had many of the ideas first.
This shake-up will apply to all 4.5 million people on out-of-work benefits, but is expected to impact most on those on Jobseekers Allowance.
Conservative support
Under plans laid out in the Green Paper, claimants will have to carry out four weeks' community work once they have been unemployed for more than a year.
After two years, they will be ordered to work full-time in the community.
Incapacity Benefit claimants will all move to the new Employment Support Allowance by 2013, which ministers hope will be regarded, for all but the most disabled people, as a temporary benefit.
People who have been signed off sick will have a new medical check with someone who is not their own GP.
Drug addicts are also being targeted, with the government expecting them to declare their problem and to embark on treatment in return for benefits.
The Conservatives say they will support many of the proposals, effectively neutralising any Labour backbench opposition.
The Liberal Democrats have welcomed some elements of the Green Paper, but are reserving their judgment on whether to support ministers.
Mr Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, says the welfare reforms being proposed will "transform lives".
He told BBC Five Live Breakfast: "People have an obligation to work and the benefit system is not there to give you a choice between benefits and work; it's there to help you when you can't find work.
"If you can find work you should take it, if there isn't work there you should take steps to get back into work."
But people who do not take up the offer of support would lose benefits, said Mr Purnell.
He said the government wanted to get one million people off incapacity benefit by 2015.
But former welfare reform minister Frank Field told the BBC's Today programme he doubted the proposals would make any difference.
Tough choices
"The key fault in the old system is being brought into the new system, and that is if you can get through the employment capacity test... you'll get onto a higher rate of benefit," he said.
As long as people are paid a fair wage for their work, why shouldn't they work for benefits? Peter Hearty, Southend-on-Sea
Mr Field said he had been arguing for 10 years that there should be a single rate of benefit for people of working age who were unable to work. They should be funded via the Disability Living Allowance, not benefits, he said.
"The whole emphasis here, naturally, will be for people not to get jobs but to get onto the higher rate of benefit," he added.
And Labour left-winger Jeremy Corbyn said he was "surprised and disappointed" that the government seemed to be "punishing people for being poor".
In February government welfare adviser David Freud suggested less than a third of the 2.7 million people claiming the benefit were doing so legitimately.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling said: "We very much agree with the package of reforms... it's particularly helpful that they're bringing them forward now because we always expected the reforms to take a couple of years to prepare before being ready to yield results.
"So in reality what this announcement means is that the next government will inherit a set of proposals that have been turned into action and are ready to bring about real change to our welfare state."
'Deep concerns'
Lib Dem work and pensions spokeswoman Jenny Willott said the government's plans "ignore the disincentive to work that our complex benefit system has created".
"The fact that over half of children living in poverty are in working households is largely ignored," she said. "Reforms must ensure that work really pays or we will see poverty levels rising in Britain."
Jon Sparkes, chief executive of the disability charity Scope, said he had "deep concerns about the tone of these reforms and the target-led ethos underpinning them".
He added: "Disabled people face a myriad of barriers in finding employment, including negative attitudes from employers and inadequate social care support.
"Punitive measures against individual disabled claimants will do nothing to remove these barriers."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7516551.stm
Published: 2008/07/21 13:42:48 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
The Welfare Green Paper is set to include proposals to force those unemployed for more than two years to work full-time in the community.
Incapacity benefit will be scrapped as part of a scheme to get more people claiming the benefit back to work.
Minister James Purnell says the plans are "revolutionary". The Tories say they had many of the ideas first.
This shake-up will apply to all 4.5 million people on out-of-work benefits, but is expected to impact most on those on Jobseekers Allowance.
Conservative support
Under plans laid out in the Green Paper, claimants will have to carry out four weeks' community work once they have been unemployed for more than a year.
After two years, they will be ordered to work full-time in the community.
Incapacity Benefit claimants will all move to the new Employment Support Allowance by 2013, which ministers hope will be regarded, for all but the most disabled people, as a temporary benefit.
People who have been signed off sick will have a new medical check with someone who is not their own GP.
Drug addicts are also being targeted, with the government expecting them to declare their problem and to embark on treatment in return for benefits.
The Conservatives say they will support many of the proposals, effectively neutralising any Labour backbench opposition.
The Liberal Democrats have welcomed some elements of the Green Paper, but are reserving their judgment on whether to support ministers.
Mr Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, says the welfare reforms being proposed will "transform lives".
He told BBC Five Live Breakfast: "People have an obligation to work and the benefit system is not there to give you a choice between benefits and work; it's there to help you when you can't find work.
"If you can find work you should take it, if there isn't work there you should take steps to get back into work."
But people who do not take up the offer of support would lose benefits, said Mr Purnell.
He said the government wanted to get one million people off incapacity benefit by 2015.
But former welfare reform minister Frank Field told the BBC's Today programme he doubted the proposals would make any difference.
Tough choices
"The key fault in the old system is being brought into the new system, and that is if you can get through the employment capacity test... you'll get onto a higher rate of benefit," he said.
As long as people are paid a fair wage for their work, why shouldn't they work for benefits? Peter Hearty, Southend-on-Sea
Mr Field said he had been arguing for 10 years that there should be a single rate of benefit for people of working age who were unable to work. They should be funded via the Disability Living Allowance, not benefits, he said.
"The whole emphasis here, naturally, will be for people not to get jobs but to get onto the higher rate of benefit," he added.
And Labour left-winger Jeremy Corbyn said he was "surprised and disappointed" that the government seemed to be "punishing people for being poor".
In February government welfare adviser David Freud suggested less than a third of the 2.7 million people claiming the benefit were doing so legitimately.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling said: "We very much agree with the package of reforms... it's particularly helpful that they're bringing them forward now because we always expected the reforms to take a couple of years to prepare before being ready to yield results.
"So in reality what this announcement means is that the next government will inherit a set of proposals that have been turned into action and are ready to bring about real change to our welfare state."
'Deep concerns'
Lib Dem work and pensions spokeswoman Jenny Willott said the government's plans "ignore the disincentive to work that our complex benefit system has created".
"The fact that over half of children living in poverty are in working households is largely ignored," she said. "Reforms must ensure that work really pays or we will see poverty levels rising in Britain."
Jon Sparkes, chief executive of the disability charity Scope, said he had "deep concerns about the tone of these reforms and the target-led ethos underpinning them".
He added: "Disabled people face a myriad of barriers in finding employment, including negative attitudes from employers and inadequate social care support.
"Punitive measures against individual disabled claimants will do nothing to remove these barriers."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7516551.stm
Published: 2008/07/21 13:42:48 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
