Single parents came under double assault yesterday from both Labour and the Conservatives before the publication of government plans to deprive the hardcore unemployed of their benefits.

The long-term unemployed and single parents face more rigorous interviews and must prove that they are trying to get work in order to receive benefits, under plans drawn up for the Government by David Freud, a former banker.

The proposals, which will be announced by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown today, are expected to include a requirement for single parents to seek work once their youngest child reaches 11, rather than the current age of 16.

About 200,000 people are long-term jobseeker’s allowance claimants, while 2.5 million are on incapacity benefit and 800,000 receive lone parents’ benefits.

John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary, told BBC1’s Sunday AM that the age 16 clause meant that single parents had been in the benefit system for so long that they were not in a position to get work and so went from income support to incapacity benefit.

His remarks came as David Cameron again defended marriage. He told the Welsh Conservatives’ spring conference: “It’s time we recognised that family breakdown is the central factor in the social breakdown we see in our country today . . . That is why we support marriage and will back it through the tax system.

“Some people say it’s wrong to single out marriage in this way. I don’t care.”

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