• The post you are reporting:
   
  courtesy of the telegraph, i cannot find the original thread.
  
  "The mandatory work activity scheme, which forces people on the dole to do community work, is to be doubled
  
  The scheme offers a month's full time work to unemployed people who in the view of Job Centre staff are not "pulling their weight". Whitehall sources described the scheme as "a kick up the backside" or a "big push for people who are struggling".
  
  Mr Grayling refused to be drawn on the details of the announcement.
  
  He told The Daily Telegraph: "We will be giving more details about our plans next month. But it is the case that Job Centre Plus staff have said this has proved to be an enormously valuable tool in trying to focus people on their job search."
  
  In the past year 18,000 unemployed adults have been gone onto the scheme, which Job Centre staff - which decide who goes on the scheme - say has proved popular.
  
  Next month Mr Grayling will say that the scheme, which for those on the dole who are aged over 24, is going to double in size.
  
  Mr Grayling is also understood to be looking at forcing people who miss two fortnightly job interviews to go on the scheme.
  
  Detailed statistics of the scheme, which was started last year by Mr Grayling as part of a "carrot and stick" approach to benefits, will be published next month.
  
  They are likely to show that half of the people referred for a month's activity were coming off benefits, or were not turning up and having their benefits as a result.
  
  Ministers like the scheme because it stops benefit claimants from working on the black market at the same. One source said: "They can't do both."

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