Jeremy Hunt wants to make work pay. Few Conservatives will argue with that, nor with the idea of introducing sanctions for benefit claimants who refuse to look for work. Truth is he could and should go far further than threatening to cut the benefits of hardcore work-avoiders who refuse even to attend job interviews. A more radical approach would be to abolish unemployment benefits altogether and instead offer anyone who wants it three days a week guaranteed work at the National Living Wage. The government’s opponents would deride it as ‘US-style workfare’. But forcing people to turn up and do some work in return for their keep would ensure that they remain in the practice of employment. And it would almost certainly expose mass fraud.
That is exactly what happened when the Conservatives last trialled such a scheme in the 1990s.
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