The Government will withdraw the benefits for the long-term jobless
who refuse to sign up to the New Deal programme to get unemployed people into
work.
Claimants will be forced to take on a subsidised job,
training, voluntary work or a place on an environmental task force or lose
their jobseeker’s allowance.
The Government will also target the over-25s, lone parents
and people with disabilities.
Latest figures show less than 1
million people are still unemployed and the chancellor Gordon Brown has pledged
to try and attain full employment.
