Robert Jenrick and Richard Tice laughing at a podium during a press conference.Reform UK Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick (left) and Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice during a press conference at Church House in central London. Picture date: Monday August 17, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire Credit: PA

LONG-term benefit claimants will be forced to clean up Britain’s high streets and do charity work or face losing their handouts, Reform UK has said.

, the party’s Treasury spokesperson, said those who are fit to work will be forced to work 20-hours a week in their local communities.

Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, sits at an outdoor picnic table with a pint of beer in hand, smiling.Nigel Farage’s party says long-term benefits claimants will lose their handouts if they don’t take part in community service Credit: AFP Robert Jenrick, Reform UK Treasury spokesman, speaks at a press conference on welfare policy.Reform UK’s treasury spokesperson, Robert Jenrick, announced the party’s ‘Welfare to Work’ scheme Credit: Getty

The scheme would be run by local councils while those who do provide work placements will have their funding cut.

Mr Jenrick told an event in Central London that a Reform government will put a stop to “those taking everyone else for mugs”.

He announced Reform UK’s “Welfare to Work” scheme which will ensure those who can work and incentivised to do so.

“There are more than 330,000 adults on Universal Credit capable of work, and who are supposed to be looking for it, which they have been reportedly doing so for more than 12 months,” he said.

“That can’t keep going on.

“If taxpayers must contribute, so must the able recipients of their support who can as well.”

Mr Jenrick added: “They’ll work to clean up high streets and parks, to beautify neglected places, to carry out minor repairs, to staff libraries and community centres to perform many other tasks from the list that we’ve published today.

“We’ll also embrace local charities and community groups and ask them to help us and take part.

“If claimants refuse to participate or fail to show up, they’ll face penalties.

“Let me speak plainly, if people who are capable of working refuse to, they’ll get nothing. That’s fair.”

Mr Jenrick said the contributory-based welfare system put in place after the 1942 Beveridge Report had been broken.

He added that the the average tax burden for each family is on track to reach £7,000 by 2031 to pay for the welfare state.

Reform UK has calculated that their new welfare policies will cut £50billion from the benefits bill by seeing disability and sickness payments withdrawn or modified

“There are 6.6 million working age people in the UK, claiming out of work benefits,” he continued.

“Among their number are many who can work, who should work, but have chosen not to, and the system has allowed that to persist.

“These people are really taking advantage of their fellow citizens, their friends, their neighbours, their community.

“Disability and incapacity claims have doubled in less than a decade, with more than 4 million people now claiming. Britain is not twice as sick as it was just a few years ago. We all know that.”

It comes after ‘s party if Reform came to power.

It would mean renegotiating the deal with as the ban would also include EU citizens with settled status.

And that could mean British expats living in member states losing their equivalent rights.

However, has blasted Reform’s plan, saying it would “plunge the UK back into years of Brexit negotiations”.