PARENTS on benefits will now have to spend twice as long each week looking for work.
They can now be ordered to spend as many as 30 hours trying to find a job — up from as little as 16 hours.
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Alternatively, Universal Credit claimants can increase their hours in an existing part-time job.
It is part of a drive to use the hordes of unemployed parents to plug worrying levels of vacancies and start to wrestle down state support.
Welfare Secretary Mel Stride says taxpayers are getting a raw deal bankrolling out-of-work mums and dads.
He also wants to instil the value of work into children and break the cycle of generations signing on.
READ MORE ON UNIVERSAL CREDIT
Writing in The Sun, he says that “for some families work still isn’t the norm”.
He adds: “That just isn’t fair. Not for the taxpayers who foot the benefit bill. Nor for the children growing up in workless households, who are FIVE TIMES more likely to be in poverty.
“We’re changing the system so parents of children aged three to 12 on Universal Credit will need to spend more time in work or job searching.”
It follows a bumper childcare announcement which increased help to £951 a month for one child and £1,630 for two or more.
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‘JOBS FOR THE JOYS’
By Mel Stride, Welfare Secretary
FOR most children, seeing mum and dad work hard to support them brings home – literally – the value of work.
The Government’s reforms mean families are now at least £6,000 a year better off in full-time jobs than unemployed on benefits.
And there are almost four million more people employed than in 2010.
But for some families work still isn’t the norm. That just isn’t fair.
Not for taxpayers who foot the benefit bill.
Nor for children growing up in workless households, who are five times more likely to be in poverty.
That’s why we’re changing the system.
Work is good for people.
