SICK and disabled people will have their benefits slashed if they fail to attend job interviews under a crackdown signalled yesterday.

Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton said he was determined to tackle the soaring bill for incapacity benefit by demanding claimants seek work.

The largely voluntary approach that left people languishing on incapacity benefit for years, with little chance of ever returning to work, was no longer acceptable, he said.

The crackdown is expected to target the blackspot of the North-East, which is home to about 100,000 of the 2.7m people, at a total cost of £7.6bn.

The worst-hit area is the former mining community of Easington, east Durham, where one in five work-age people claim the benefit.

In a speech yesterday, Mr Hutton described those figures as "abject failure", which was demoralising families and entire communities.

The solution was to impose "benefit consequences" on people who refuse to keep themselves fit for service by attending work interviews.

Mr Hutton said: "While 80 to 90 per cent of people coming onto incapacity benefit expect to get back into work quickly, many never do.

"After two years on the benefit, someone is more likely to die or retire than to ever find a job. Now that is just not good enough."

Mr Hutton added: "The increased support we offer to people seeking to get back in the workplace must be matched by increased obligations."

John Cummings, Labour MP for Easington, said he would be meeting Mr Hutton to discuss the crackdown.

He said Labour MPs would welcome efforts to improve the training offered to benefit claimants, as long as nobody was bullied back into work against their will.

He said: "People who find themselves on incapacity benefit for very valid reasons should not be subject to any pressure.

"There must also be jobs for them to do and, although the situation has improved, a great deal more needs to be done to attract industry."

Proposals issued a year ago angered Downing Street by targeting only new claimants, who would receive extra benefit only if they could prove they were actively looking for work.

Now Mr Hutton is expected to demand existing claimants also attend job interviews.

No 10 is known to have pressed for incapacity benefit to be means-tested, to penalise those with savings, and for a strict time limit on eligibility to force claimants back to work.

But this would provoke a row with Labour MPs, threatening a repeat of the revolt by 65 backbenchers over changes in 1999.

Even if Mr Hutton shies away from means-testing, it is likely the benefit could be slashed by at least £10 for those unwilling to work.