Government plans to make hundreds of thousands of people work for their state benefits or facing losing them were being outlined this afternoon in Parliament, reports London Editor John Hipwood.

Incapacity benefit and income support would be scrapped under the plans and benefits for people who are out of work would be cut to just two – the jobseeker’s allowance and the employment support allowance.

Jobseeker’s allowance will be retained for those fit for work and employment support for those out of work due to a physical or medical condition.

The message from Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell to MPs is that there will no longer be a “right to a life on benefits”.

The proposals are borrowed from Australia and the United States, but they will not go as far as some American states where benefits are cut off altogether if an individual fails to find work after a given time.

However, only full-time carers and disabled people “with the greatest needs” will not be expected to go out and find a job.

Single parents with children aged seven and over will be one of the biggest groups expected to work.

Anyone who does not find a job would eventually be expected to carry out work in the community in exchange for benefits.

Mr Purnell said there were two main strands to the Government’s proposals – support for people trying to find a job, and individual responsibility which meant those who could fend for themselves and their families should do so.

“If people don’t live up to that expectation then of course people can lose their benefits,” he said.

“For people who are looking for work, we will be saying to people if they play the system they will have to work to get their benefits.

“So there’s a very clear sanction at the end of the line. But the key thing is that in an ideal world you don’t want to use the sanction, you want people to take up the support.”

By London Editor John Hipwood