SICK and disabled people will face random checks of eligibility for benefits - with the threat of an £11-a-week cut for those who fail the tests and fail to look for work.

A drive to get a million incapacity benefit (IB) claimants back to work will include a dedicated team to catch benefit cheats, the Government announced yesterday.

Anyone judged not to be incapacitated will be required to undergo a fresh assessment of their ability to work under much tougher rules.

They would be required to attend interviews and draw up "action plans" to find jobs, and could be stripped of £11 from their weekly £57 to £76 benefit for refusing, which could rise to £22 for a second refusal.

The random checks mean the welfare reform Green Paper unveiled yesterday is tougher than was signalled last year, when the threat of benefit cuts applied to new claimants only.

People claiming IB for two years will also be given personal advisors and face benefit cuts in "a series of slices" if they refuse to look for work.

But suggestions from Downing Street that sickness benefits would be means-tested, to penalise those with savings, have been axed.

More than 160,000 North-Easterners claim IB, a legacy of the 1980s and early 1990s when the jobless were pushed on to the benefit to keep the unemployment count down.

Easington, in County Durham, has now overtaken Merthyr Tydfil, in South Wales, as Britain's "IB capital", with a 20 per cent of adults claiming.

Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton condemned the nationwide total of 2.7 million people on IB as "a shameful legacy of Thatcherism" that must be ended.

Mr Hutton said a target of returning a million to work within a decade could save £7bn a year and offer "escape from living on the poverty line".

Last night, it appeared the package would not spark a large backbench rebellion because benefits would be cut only for those who refused to co-operate to find work.

But John Cummings, Labour MP for Easington, said he was concerned, particularly by the proposal to employ private companies to carry out assessments on claimants.

There would be a "payment by results" system, raising fears that private firms would be given strong incentives to cut the benefits bill.

Mr Cummings said: "The devil will be in the detail. We must ensure that those unable to work are not put under any undue pressure whatsoever.

"It will take a great deal of patience and understanding by those who are going to carry out these assessments."

Under the reforms, IB will be renamed employment and support allowance (ESA) from 2008, with higher payments for the chronically disabled.

But those judged able to work will receive only £56.20 a week - the level of jobseeker's allowance - unless they look to work, in which case they will get up to £77.

Automatic benefit increases after six and 12 months - described as a "perverse incentive" to remain on the sick will be scrapped.

Employment advisors will be put in GP surgeries, although Mr Hutton described suggestions that doctors would be paid for refusing to sign sick notes as "bonkers".

Benefit capital 'is legacy of coal mining industry'

THE former mining heartland of Easington, in east Durham, is traditionally an area where incapacity benefit claims are among the highest in the country.

Andy Collins, a spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions in the North-East, said: "Common sense tells us that in areas of former heavy industry there are a lot of people with long-term health problems.

"However, it is more complicated than that. It may be a cultural thing."

Several areas in the North-East, such as Gateshead, the Tees Valley and Durham have piloted Pathway to Work schemes, intended to get people into employment, and this is now set to be rolled out across the country.

The scheme employs advisors in JobCentre Plus centres to provide tailored help for sickness claimants.

Mr Collins said: "Instead of labelling people as just being on the sick, we look at them as individuals and see what they need to get back to work. Sometimes it's a bit of training, medical help or a simple boosting of their self-esteem.

"Most people intend to get back to work when they first go on the sick, but gradually lose their self-confidence, and we need to get to them before they reach this stage."

Easington district councillor Alan Burnip said: "The reason there are so many people on incapacity benefit is a legacy of the coal mining industry.

"Many ex-miners are suffering from various problems related to the industry and bad working conditions."