All employment services run by Jobcentre Plus should be privatised, creating a multi-billion-pound market in welfare-to-work provision, a think-tank will argue.

A report by the Social Market Foundation, to be published on Friday, will advocate a radical simplification of the welfare system so anyone out of work will be supported by the same provider throughout their time on benefits. The reforms are proposed as a cost-effective antidote to a system too centralised, complex and blighted with “bottlenecks, inconsistencies and inefficiencies”.