"With a Conservative government, unemployed young people who don't find a job within three months will be referred automatically to a specialist employment provider, where they will be expected to take part in an intensive programme or work-related activity," announced Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary.
But Government says its own policies are working.
"There are one million fewer people on out-of-work benefits since 1997, and the claimant unemployment rate is its lowest since April 1975," says a Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson. "There are also 9,000 fewer people claiming Incapacity Benefit now than in 1997. This [criticism] simply doesn't stack up. "
Grayling's speech, delivered at the Centre for Policy Studies, unveiled plans to tackle the UK's unemployed, saying that the Conservatives would focus on the under 21s in particular.
Plans to get criminal offenders back into the workplace were also revealed.
"We will make it mandatory for everyone ending a sentence to join a structured return-to-work programme on the day of their release," he said.
He also accused the present Government of using the economic benefits of immigration to "paper over the cracks" of its failures in welfare reform.
"This Government has let down those excluded from the labour market," said Grayling. "I want to create a Britain where it is no longer possible to spend long periods of your life on benefits at home doing nothing."
