400,000 ADDICTS TO LOSE WELFARE BENEFITS IF THEY REFUSE TREATMENT

About 400,000 benefit claimants who are dependent on drugs or alcohol
could have the payments docked if they fail to undergo treatment for
addiction, the Government announced today.

The claimants will be offered assistance - in some cases residential
courses - to help end their dependence and prepare them for a return
to employment.

Those failing to participate will be deemed to be unavailable for work
and will have their benefits cut.

Ministers say the reform is needed to reduce the UKP 1.6 billion annual
bill for addicted claimants.

It is contained in a new anti-drugs strategy published in the Commons
today by Home Secretary Theresa May which focuses on getting addicts
off drugs and alcohol, rather than merely reducing the harm they cause
to themselves and others.

Other measures include a plan to use former junkies and alcoholics to
advise addicts on kicking their habit and greater powers for police to
seize drug dealers' assets at home and abroad.

Officials and drugs experts will also carry out test purchases in
areas such as Camden where new "legal highs" are being sold to
identify substances that should be banned. Efforts will be made to
improve drug treatment in prisons.

Mrs May said that drugs were costing the country an estimated UKP 15.4
billion a year and alcohol was ruining many lives.

"Together, they cause misery and pain to individuals, destroy families
and undermine communities," she added. "Such suffering cannot be
allowed to go unchecked. We are determined to break the cycle of
dependence on drugs and alcohol and the wasted opportunities that
result."

Today's strategy says that benefit claimants will not be specifically
targeted in the new approach to treatment, but "will be expected to
comply with the full requirements of the benefits regime". Most
welfare recipients are expected to be available for work.

The document adds: "Drugs matter to the whole of society, as all of us
feel the impact. From the crime in local neighbourhoods, through
families forced apart by dependency, to the corrupting effect of
international organised crime, drugs have a profound and negative
effect on communities, families and individuals."

Other reforms include giving teachers the power to search pupils for
drugs, alcohol and "legal highs" and six pilot projects in which
organisations will be given financial rewards for getting addicts off
drugs.