Reform UK today vowed to make long-term welfare claimants do 20 hours a week of community work – such as cleaning up high streets – in order to keep their benefits.
Robert Jenrick, the party's Treasury spokesman, unveiled plans to make benefit recipients part of 'alarm clock Britain' under a 'welfare to work' scheme.
Under the proposals, those who have been out of work for more than 12 months but are deemed fit to work will be made to undertake tasks organised by their local council.
This will include work to clean up high streets and parks, to staff libraries and community centres, and work with local charities, Mr Jenrick said.
'If claimants refuse to participate or fail to show up, they will face penalties,' he added. 'Let me speak plainly, if people who are capable of working refuse to, they'll get nothing. That's fair.'
It is part of a package of benefits changes that Reform claims will save taxpayers almost £50billion in welfare spending.
The party also plans to block foreign nationals – including EU citizens with settled status in the UK – from claiming almost all kinds of benefits in the UK.
Mr Jenrick insisted that a Reform government could successfully renegotiate the Brexit deal in order to introduce such a ban for EU nationals.
Robert Jenrick, Reform UK's Treasury spokesman, unveiled plans to make benefit recipients part of 'alarm clock Britain' under a 'welfare to work' scheme
Mr Jenrick vowed to make long-term welfare claimants do 20 hours a week of community work - such as cleaning up high streets - in order to keep their benefits
Speaking at a press conference in central London on Monday, Mr Jenrick said of the proposed scheme: 'They will work to clean up high streets and parks, to beautify areas neglected, to carry out minor repairs, to staff libraries and community centres, and to perform many other tasks from an indicative list we have published today. We'll also let local charities take part.
'If claimants refuse to participate or fail to show up, they will face penalties. Let me speak plainly, if people who are capable of working refuse to, they'll get nothing. That's fair.
'How can it be that one family on a street, with working parents, strive and work hard, only to help fund the lifestyle of another who chooses to not bother with work at all?
'This isn't just an aberration, a small number of isolated cases to be dismissed as a triviality. It is an epidemic that has been allowed to take hold across the country, and spread into a full blown national crisis.
'My message today to those taking everyone else for mugs: under a Reform government it's going to stop.
'Instead, if they are asking their neighbours to fund their lifestyle while they choose to stay out of work, they can give back something in return.
'If they want to do something else, they can find a job. No more "something for nothing", but security for contribution. They will become part of "alarm clock Britain".'
Reform pointed to Department for Work and Pensions figures that showed, at the last count, there were more than 300,000 work-capable adults who were claiming Universal Credit on 'seeking work' conditions and had been doing so for more than 12 months.
Mr Jenrick also expressed confidence that a Reform government would be able to successfully renegotiate Britain's divorce agreement with Brussels in order to stop EU citizens with settled status in the UK from claiming benefits.
He added: 'There's clearly going to be a renegotiation. The deal that was done I don't believe was a good deal - I think many people would support that.
'There are a number of points on which Reform has already made clear that we will need to return to our neighbours in the EU and renegotiate upon and this will be one of them.
'Let's see, I'm confident that we can do that and we can restore fairness in the process.'
Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice said: 'That deal was now seven years ago - by the time of the next general election it might be a decade after the original deal.
'And that's what you do with deals, you see which bits are working and which bits are not working. This is one of those bits that's not working.'
Reform has acknowledged that Britons living in the EU could lose their rights to benefits as a result and they have estimated a cost of £500million for expatriates returning to the UK and claiming welfare after losing their entitlement to support.
Mel Stride, the Tory shadow chancellor and former work and pensions secretary, said: 'I introduced reforms to cut the sprawling welfare budget after the pandemic by reducing the numbers on long term benefits and radically overhauling PIP.
'Labour called them "divisive" and scrapped all of them, allowing the benefits bill to continue spiralling. Robert Jenrick hailed my reforms for making the system fairer and enabling us to cut taxes responsibly.
'Reform continue to flip flop like they did on the two-child benefit cap, and their fantasy numbers are simply not plausible.
'Meanwhile, Labour are totally failing to tackle the scale of our welfare problem. Only the Conservatives have a radical and credible plan to cut the welfare bill and get Britain working again.'