Aim to get young people into work

Penalties for Turning Down Welfare to Work Deal

18 to 25-year-olds who are jobless will be given a choice between gaining a foot on the jobs ladder, or losing their Jobseekers Allowance.

But ministers denied they were being Draconian, insisting they were offering youngsters a genuine New Deal of work, training or education.

Everyone in the age group who has been out of work for longer than six months will be offered four options from next year; a job with a private employer, work with a voluntary organisation or an environmental task force, or full-time education or training.

The Chancellor Gordon Brown has made it clear there will be no fifth option of staying at home on full benefit, and today ministers revealed the sanctions they have drawn up.

If a young person turns down one of the four options, his or her case will be referred to an Employment Service adjudicator and they will lose their benefit for two weeks unless they have a good cause.

If they refuse one of the options for a second time, their benefit will be referred to an Employment Service adjudicator and they will lose their benefit for two weeks unless they have a good cause.

If they refuse one of the options for a second time, their benefit will be stopped for four weeks.

They will continue to have their benefit stopped for four weeks every time they turn down a place on the £3.5 billion programme, which is being funded by the windfall tax on utilities' profits.

If young people turning down the options are in need, for example because they have dependant children, their benefit will be reduced by 40%.

The Education and Employment Secretary David Blunkett said jobless youngsters would be offered choices, "until they stop choosing". He announced a "gateway" to the programme, under which youngsters can spend four months learning education and social skills before taking up one of the four options.

"There are two choices for us as a nation _ leaving young people in an unemployable state, unattractive to employers, or doing something about it," he said.

Ministers are also considering setting up a special telephone hotline so youngsters can report any abuse of the system.

There are 178,000 young men and women who have been jobless for more than six months, with thousands more passing the threshold every month.

Projects will begin in 10% of the country in January, with the full programme coming on stream in April.

Youngsters taken on by private firms will be paid a wage, while those taken on by a voluntary or environmental group will receive a grant of up to £400, plus an allowance equivalent to their benefit.