Compulsory work to keep your benefits

INCOME support claimants should be required to accept up to 10 hours of work each week or risk having their payments cut, MPs have proposed.

President Sarkozy's UMP party has confirmed it will push for the changes to the RSA (revenu de solidarité active) to encourage people to return to employment.

UMP deputy general secretary Marc-Philippe Daubresse, who is leading a conference on benefits tomorrow, said the government was in favour of a compulsory work contract for claimants who were physically able to work.

They would be required to accept paid work for between five and 10 hours a week when offered, with jobs including crossing patrols outside schools, cleaning, accompanying elderly people or temp work at mairies and local councils.

Claimants who refuse the work could lose their entitlement to income support. The government also wants to reinforce anti-fraud controls.

The RSA, which replaced the RMI (revenu minimum d’insertion) in 2009, is designed to give people an incentive to find work.

Three million households in France are eligible. The welfare-to-work scheme gives them extra money on top of their pay to make up for lost unemployment benefits.

Mr Daubresse told Le Parisien: "The principle that anyone who works, no matter how few hours, earns more than someone who does not work at all has clearly not applied."

Europe minister Laurent Wauquiez suggested last month that access to RSA be tightened up, including tougher requirements for foreign residents in France who claim.

He said it was "not normal" that the French system allows foreign newcomers "very easy" access to various benefits.

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