DAVID CAMERON is to unveil a plan to get Britain back to work by forcing millions of welfare claimants into training.

The assault on the dependency culture is similar to programmes in America. Private firms that prepare people for employment and place them in jobs would be paid by results.

Most people who have been unemployed for more than six months, including the disabled and single mothers, would be required to join the new privatised schemes or see their payments cut.

The so-called Work Programme, to be unveiled at the party’s conference in Manchester tomorrow, coincides with the revelation that Iain Duncan Smith, the former party leader, would be Cameron’s adviser on “broken Britain” if the Tories win the election.

Duncan Smith, who is regarded as the Tories’ boldest thinker on social justice, would chair a cabinet committee in a future Conservative government looking at ways of improving the plight of the poorest Britons, The Sunday Times has learnt. It is not clear whether he would become a cabinet minister or be given a senior role outside the cabinet.

The moves by Cameron are designed to counter the Labour charge that the Conservatives would repeat the errors of the 1980s recession and leave the unemployed on the scrap heap. The detailed preparations would enable the Tories to avoid the paralysis that dogged Labour’s efforts at welfare reform when it was elected in 1997.

The welfare plan is the brainchild of Lord Freud, the former Labour adviser who defected to the Tories earlier this year. It would abolish the Labour government’s New Deal programme designed to get the long-term unemployed into work. It would also effectively mean the end of Jobcentre Plus, where bureaucrats design training programmes for the unemployed.

Theresa May, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “Under Labour we’ve seen a comprehensive failure to tackle the growing dependency culture and challenge of the long-term unemployed.

“For too long Labour ducked welfare reform and too many people have suffered as a result.

“We are determined to change this with a radical and bold plan to deal with Labour’s jobs crisis and get Britain working.”

Under the new scheme:

- Rigorous medical checks will be made to determine whether those on incapacity benefit are capable of work.

- Private companies and charities will be asked to bid for contracts to place the longer-term jobless into work.

- Benefits claimants who refuse to take training places will see their payments cut.

- The Treasury will allow savings from the programmes to be reinvested in more private training places.

The Tories hope that in the first four years of a future government the scheme will help to cut drastically the number of working age people on benefits from today’s 5.9m.

According to the Tories there are at least 2m claimants who have never worked and 3m who have never worked during the 12 years of Labour government.

The new scheme, which is modelled on programmes such as America Works, will also target so-called Neets — young people who are not in education, employment or training.

The Tories have refused to put a figure on how much the programme might ultimately save the Treasury. “Over time we expect this will help bring down the welfare bill,” said a source. “But this scheme is not primarily about cuts.”

Duncan Smith’s appointment could pave the way for even more radical policies on welfare and families. He has advocated the abolition of tax credits and most categories of benefits, replacing them with two simple payments as a way of encouraging the jobless to seek work. The Tory leadership is understood to be exploring the plan, which would cost £3 billion upfront and might take 10 years to complete.

The former leader, who chairs the Centre for Social Justice think tank, is credited with popularising the expression “Broken Britain” and has also championed radical plans to prevent family breakdown.

Critics will point out that Labour is already piloting private welfare schemes and has a programme of medical tests for incapacity benefit claimants.

However, a Tory source said: “Labour’s pursuit of the reform agenda has been patchy and hesitant, with a confusing mess of overlapping schemes.”

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