Single mothers must get a job, say 'tough love' Tories

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Chris Grayling will today unveil proposals requiring primary school parents to seek a job of up to 20 hours a week.

Once their children go to secondary school they must be willing to work full-time, he will insist.

"It's the right thing for them, and for their children," Mr Grayling will say.

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"All the evidence shows getting a household off benefit dependency is ultimately good for parents and children alike.

"We will expect people to take a job if there is a reasonable option available.

"If they won't, then the state cannot be expected to simply continue supporting them through benefit payments."

The policy announcement is the first salvo in a Tory drive on welfare reform which will be at the heart of the party's campaigning early next year.

David Cameron will flesh out a pledge to strip incapacity benefit from claimants who refuse to look for work.

He has studied Wisconsin in the U.S. which implemented the most aggressive reforms seen in the western world.

They ultimately cut benefit rolls by around 90 per cent.

Mr Cameron's basic approach is expected to be the same, with claimants denied welfare when they decline suitable jobs. Time limits could also be placed on key benefits.

Today Mr Grayling will attack the Government's record on welfare in a speech to the centre-Right thinktank-Policy Exchange.

For millions who could return to work, he will say, benefits have become a 'way of life'.

Over the past decade, 1.5million people have come to Britain to work despite nearly five million Britons still claiming jobless benefits.

And youth unemployment is higher than a decade ago.

The Government's support programmes for incapacity benefit claimants, meanwhile, apply only to new claimants and a tiny proportion of the 2.7million already claiming.

Ministers want a million people off incapacity benefit by 2016. But Mr Grayling will say that at today's rate of progress, it will take until 2041 - 25 years late - to achieve that goal.

"The whole approach we take in this country must be much more ambitious," he will say.

"We will provide much better support for people looking to get back into work.

"Other countries have shown things can be done better. But at the same time, we will be tough on those who are reluctant to start working.

"David Cameron calls it "tough love".

"We don't think it's right to let people claim benefits, to sit at home, unless they genuinely can't work."

The Tories would return the welfare state to its original purpose - for those who run into real difficulties and to provide support in old age or ill-health.

"It must not be a cushion against the choices that most people have to take in their daily lives, about work, about priorities, about paying the bills," Mr Grayling will add.

Britain's employment rate for lone parents is 56.5 per cent, the lowest in Europe.

In Denmark, 80 per cent of single parents work.

In this country, they typically get income support of £57.45 a week, child tax credit worth £65 a week, and help with council tax and housing costs of £88.45 a week.