Tory plan to send jobless youths to boot camp

UNEMPLOYED youths face being sent to "boot camp" under plans to be set out by the Tories today.

In a glimpse of the hard-line approach a Tory government would take to benefit claimants, the party is to unveil plans to send under-21s who have been unemployed for three months on intensive work-related activity.

If they remain out of work for a year, they will then be required to sign up for a 12-month community work programme or face losing their benefits.

The proposals, to be outlined in a speech by Chris Grayling, the party's shadow work and pensions secretary, are the latest idea within its "work for welfare" programme.

Since the end of last year, the party has been launching policies under the themes of opportunity, responsibility and security.

To date, there have been plans to raise school performance and provide 222,000 new school places, to ensure every benefit claimant capable of working is made to do so – or to prepare for work – and for tougher prison sentences to tackle reoffending.

Mr Grayling wants to end the "street corner benefit culture" and the ability of young adults to sign on and off the dole to avoid having to qualify for the government's New Deal employment programmes.

He said: "On a typical working day, you can see young people hanging around in town centres in almost every part of this country."

The move suggests that Labour and the Tories will be competing to be seen as the toughest on welfare scroungers. The government has launched public consultation on plans to prevent people being "trapped on benefits for life".

This is expected to lead to draft new laws being published in the autumn and will introduce tougher checks on claiming incapacity benefit. The aim is to take one million people off the incapacity register by 2015.

Mr Grayling said there was a need to take some young adults with a chequered background "by the scruff of the neck" and direct them into work. He said: "This approach is designed to recognise that while young people may not always get the job they want immediately, they are better off in a job and looking to move on, than languishing outside the workplace."

James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said the Tory plans would be a "waste of public cash" as most young people found a job within six months.

According to government figures, 85 per cent of benefit claims from unemployed adults aged 18-24 stopped within six months. Last month, there were 210,700 claiming for up to six months, 30,700 claiming for six to 12 months and only 6,000 after 12 months.

FACT BOX

THE Conservatives published a policy paper in January setting out the principles behind their aim of ending the "culture of dependency" and getting more people off benefits and into work. According to Tory figures, nearly 4.8 million people in Britain claim benefits – 837,000 on jobseekers' allowance, 2.6 million on incapacity benefit and 1.3 million on income support. The Tories propose a "REAL" solution: Respect for those who cannot work, Employment for those who can, Assessments for those claiming benefits and Limits on the length of time benefits are paid. They claim youth unemployment is higher than in 1997, while 80 per cent of new jobs have gone to foreign workers.