His announcement comes as the Government publishes a state of the nation report into poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency in the UK. This reveals that 1.4 million people in the UK have been on an out-of-work benefit for nine or more of the last 10 years, an estimated 670,000 households in the UK are eligible for benefits and tax credits of over £15,600 per year and social mobility in the UK is worse than in eight other major economies including the US, France and Spain.
Duncan Smith wants to tackle what he believes is a culture of dependency in the UK. The Government's Welfare Reform Bill, announced in the Queen's Speech on Tuesday, will include plans to make benefits more conditional on willingness to work. People on incapacity benefit will be assessed more quickly and those deemed able to work will be moved onto jobseekers allowance.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Duncan Smith said that unemployed people should take any job offered to them, regardless of what it was. He said the British taxpayer expected that "when work becomes available they [the unemployed] are ready and they take that job".
He added that the idea the UK is a sicker society with people less able to work was a "complete nonsense" and that more people were on incapacity benefit who in reality could work. He added that work helped "free" people and put them back into control of their life.
The announcement comes as a BBC investigation found two-thirds of people so far applying for the new Employment Support Allowance (ESA), have been rejected because their disability is not deemed sufficient to prevent them from working.
