The government is today expected to announce cash rewards for unemployed people who complete back-to-work training will be extended, according to a report in The Guardian.

Ministers are looking at extending pilot schemes which encourage those on jobseekers’ allowance to complete training and also cut benefits if they refuse, a senior official told the newspaper.

The government is also to require lone parents to seek work once their children are seven from 2010, but has resisted extending that to a demand that they find work.