Long-term Jobseekers Allowance claimants are to be given a guarantee of a job or work placement, the government has announced.

Claimants will be obliged to take up the offer if they cannot find other work, while jobs will be provided through extending the Future Jobs Fund as well as private sector and voluntary sector internships and work placements.

The government has also announced that from October all Incapacity Benefits claimants will be reassessed through a new Work Capability Assessment which looks at what they can do and what help they need, rather than on whether they could do their previous job.

The measures announced in the government’s Command Paper also include:

• the abolition of the old style Incapacity Benefit with over 10,000 long term claimants each week reassessed according to the new Work Capability Assessment determining what they can do, not what they can’t
• changes to the Work Capability Assessment to better account for people’s ability to adapt to their disability, as well as to be more sensitive to fluctuating conditions such as ME and multiple sclerosis
• for those whom it would be unreasonable to expect them to move back into work, the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) support group will provide additional financial support without the back-to-work activity
• new personalised support, conditions and timetables for reassessment for those who are currently not fit for work but could be in future – so they can prepare for work
• increased investment and a guaranteed place on Work Choice for ESA customers who have been on benefit for more than two years and want to work
• extra intensive aid for those fit for work who have been out of work for years to get them early access to the training and work experience they need to get a job – including support to help manage heath conditions in the workplace and specialist help in looking for and applying for jobs 

Work and pensions secretary of state Yvette Cooper says: “This is a ‘something for something’ approach which gives people more help alongside a responsibility to take it up so that no one who is fit for work is left to a life on benefits.

“Getting people back to work is good for families, boosts local economies and helps the public finances too.”