The number of people claiming out-of-work benefits without any requirement to look or at least prepare for a job could tumble by more than two-thirds under the government’s proposed welfare reforms.

The welfare reform bill, published on Wednesday, would move both lone parents and the long-term sick to benefits that require claimants actively to seek work. Significantly, the bill provides for abolition of income support – the means-tested benefit most claimed – whose modern origins date back to the 1942 Beveridge report.