Unemployed people could be forced to undertake full-time community service in return for receiving benefit as part of welfare reforms.

Those who refuse to seek jobs or train will be required to tidy parks, clean graffiti or help in old people’s homes in order to qualify for support. The “work for dole” programme will be introduced automatically for anyone who has been out of work for more than two years.

In an interview with The Times, James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said that nobody had a right to benefits. “There will be a very clear expectation that if there is work there people should take it, and sanctions to make sure that if they don’t there are consequences.”

A Green Paper on welfare reform, to be published shortly, will set out a series of tough new measures designed to encourage people off benefit and back to work. Unemployed people could have their benefits stopped for up to six months if they do not cooperate in looking for a job.

Sick and disabled people will be expected to work if they are physically able to do so, and lone parents will be required to take jobs when their children reach the age of 7. Drug addicts who refuse treatment will be stripped of welfare support.

However, it is the introduction of a “work for dole” programme for the first time in Britain that is likely to be the most controversial.

Mr Purnell believes that a dramatic change is needed because too many of those claiming benefit are working on the black market. “You have to create a system where people who are working illegally don’t have the time to do that,” he said.

“Work works. By requiring people to work you get the welfare bills down but you also address a massive social injustice of people being written off.”

The radical programme of welfare reform is a key part of Gordon Brown’s attempt to show that Labour has not run out of steam, 11 years after it came to power.

Although the Prime Minister clashed with David Freud, the investment banker brought in by Tony Blair to propose changes to the benefits system, he has now concluded that a revolution is required in the welfare state. “We are going further than Freud,” Mr Purnell says. “Politics is a war for radicalism and we need to speed up.”

Leftwingers are likely to be furious that a Labour government is proposing such tough sanctions on the unemployed, but the Work and Pensions Secretary argued: “There is nothing left wing about being stuck at home on benefit.”

The trade unions will also be angry about the proposals, on the basis that they will be a source of cheap labour for the Government. The new regime will apply to people who are already on benefits as well as new claimants.

Under the “work for dole” programme – which is similar to schemes in America – Jobcentre Plus advisers will be given the power to require people to do full-time community work, in return for benefits, if they believe that they are playing the system.

People who have been on jobseeker’s allowance for more than two years will automatically be required to help their local communities. The Government will also introduce tougher financial sanctions on those who fail to cooperate, Mr Purnell says.

The measures will be imposed on new claimants almost immediately. “It could be earlier than three months,” Mr Purnell says. “If people refuse a reasonable offer of a job, then they start to break their obligations and could lose their benefits . . . We are not paying benefits until you find the perfect job.”

Social insecurity

1999 Government released A New Contract for Welfare: Safeguarding Social Security, a document with targets for fighting fraud. There was little direct impact

2000 A “two strikes and you're out” policy was set up to punish people convicted of committing benefit fraud twice within three years. The levels of fraud and error fell by a quarter of a billion pounds to £3bn by 2002-03

2003 A campaign to target fraud was launched with the slogan “We're on to you”. There was no huge drop in fraud but a steady decrease continued. By 2005-06, fraud and error had fallen to a little more than £2.5bn a year

Source: Rochdale Council; DWP; World Bank

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