Applicants for benefits will face sanctions if they refuse to work, the minister said

Benefit claimants found fit to work will face sanctions if they refuse to take up work opportunities, a Cabinet minister said ahead of the announcement of measures to cut the welfare bill.

Liz Kendall said people have a “responsibility” for participating in training or employment programs and they will lose financial support if they refuse to do so.

The Labor government has said it will stick to the former Tory administration’s commitment to cut welfare spending by £3 billion over five years.

Under the previous government, welfare entitlement would have been tightened, so around 400,000 more people on long-term benefits would have been assessed as needing to be prepared for work by 2028/29 to ensure savings were made.

The Work and Pensions Secretary said on Sunday morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “If people repeatedly refuse to take on training or work responsibilities, their benefits will be sanctioned.

“The reason we believe in this so strongly is because we believe in our responsibility to provide these opportunities, and that is what we will do.

“We will transform these opportunities, but it will be up to young people to take advantage of them.”

Ms Kendall said she believed “many millions” of people with disabilities and people with long-term health problems want to work and “we need to break down the barriers to this”.

Asked whether around 400,000 people would end up losing their current benefits, she told the BBC Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I say we will push through our own reforms. You don’t expect me to announce this on your program.

The latest official forecasts published by the government show that the number of people claiming disability benefits will rise from around 2.5 million in 2019 to 4.2 million in 2029.

Last year there were just over three million applicants.

Ms Kendall will unveil proposals on Tuesday to “make the UK work” amid government concerns over projected growth.

Her white paper is expected to include the placement of job coaches in mental health clinics and a “youth guarantee” aimed at getting people aged 18-21 into work or study.

The Cabinet Office minister said the reasons for the increase in claims were “complex” and that the UK was an “older and sicker nation”.

She suggested some people had “self-diagnosed” mental health problems, but added there was a “real problem” with mental illness in the UK.

“I think there’s a combination of factors at play here,” she said. “I do think we’re seeing an increase in the number of people with mental health problems, both self-diagnosed (I think it’s good that the stigma has gone down) and doctor-diagnosed.

“We are also seeing more people aged 50 and over, often women, with sore knees, hips and joints. We have a real health care problem.”

Asked if she thought “normal feelings” were being “overly medicalized”, Ms Kendall told the BBC: “I truly believe there is no one simple thing. You know, the last government said people were too sad to work.

“I mean, I don’t know who they were talking to. There is a real mental health problem in this country.”

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer used an article in the Mail On Sunday to promise a crackdown on “criminals” who “game the system”.

The Prime Minister wrote: “Mail On Sunday readers will see even more radical changes in the coming months. Because make no mistake, we will deal with the bloated entitlement bill that is plaguing our society.

“Don’t get me wrong, we will come down hard on anyone who tries to game the system, crack down on fraud so we can take cash straight from the scammers’ banks.

“A zero-tolerance approach will be taken towards these criminals. “My promise to Mail On Sunday readers is this: I will solve this problem once and for all.”