Unemployed people claiming benefit who repeatedly turn down jobs could face compulsory work or financial sanctions under government plans to be published today.
Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell will set out the proposals, which aim to cut the number of long-term claimants.
"If there is work there for people, we think they should do it," he told BBC Radio. "People should not be able to turn down a reasonable offer of a job.
"We can't afford to waste taxpayers' money on people who are playing the system but most of all we can't afford to waste people's talent."
The government wants to cut the number of people claiming incapacity benefit by one million and have 300,000 more single parents in work.
"This will be a system where just about everyone has to do something in return for their benefits," said Purnell.
The only exceptions would be carers, parents of very young children and the severely disabled.
"There is much more of a consensus now that work is generally good for people and leaving people on benefit is the cruel thing to do," he said.
Purnell said his proposals would follow the recommendations of separate studies by Bristol University Economics Professor Paul Gregg and investment banker David Freud.
Gregg called last week for virtually all benefit claimants to be required to do something to help them move into work.
Freud proposed that private and voluntary sector organisations should be paid to find jobs for claimants, with their fees funded out of the benefit money saved as a consequence.
Labour politician Frank Field, who has long campaigned for radical reform of the welfare system, said he hoped the government would implement its plans.
"I welcome the rhetoric," he told BBC television. "My worry is that we have heard this practically every year for the last 10 years and there hasn't been much of a delivery."
But other Labour politicians fear the proposals could penalise the most vulnerable.
"It is lunacy to force people into jobs that are not there and to force lone parents to take up childcare which is either unaffordable or non-existent," said Labour MP John McDonnell.