Drive to get lone parents working

Ministers are to launch a twin clampdown on single parents and people on invalidity benefit in an effort to drive them back to work.

More lone parents with children are to be told to attend compulsory interviews or risk losing benefits in moves due to start in October 2005.

Those on income support will have to attend a "work-focused" interview every three months when their youngest child reaches 14. In the longer term, the Government may explicitly require them to take suitable jobs.

However, ministers insist that the new measures do not amount to a fresh attack on lone parents, and point out that they will also receive more state cash to help them over financial barriers to employment.

The other group being targeted is the 2.7 million claiming invalidity benefit - a figure rising by 600,000 each year. Seven pilot studies forming a "pathway to work scheme" for the disabled could be widened to include benefit claimants, while a tougher regime for the longterm unemployed has already been introduced.