Tories consider cutting disability program

LONDON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- British Conservative Party leader David Cameron is proposing changes that would force 500,000 disability recipients to return to work, The Times of London said.

The switch would immediately save about $40 per week per recipient as it shifts a portion of those collecting disability benefits to job seeker status. Cameron said unemployment was "one of the most serious things we face as a country," The Times reported Monday.

"If we don't deal with it, it is not just bad for those people who are unemployed now, there is a danger that short-term unemployment becomes long-term unemployment and builds up massive problems for our families and for our country in the future," Cameron said.

Yvette Cooper, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said the proposal was similar to Labor Party initiatives.

"We're already … implementing stronger tests for everyone on incapacity benefit, and introducing stronger requirements on the jobless to train or prepare for work," she said.

"But the Tories are opposing every penny of the extra $8 billion we're putting into a big expansion of jobs and training, particularly for young people," she said.