Employees who fall ill are to be encouraged to return to work before they are fully recovered, under radical plans to reform the welfare system.

A Green Paper presented to the House of Commons also revealed plans to reform the doctor’s sick note system, in which GPs certify that staff genuinely are ill.

The paper, published Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell, warned that the present system “could leave people with the impression that you have to be 100 per cent fit or well to be in work.”

It added: “There is an increasing consensus that, for many people and for many conditions, staying in work can actually help recovery.”

One of the aims is to drastically reduce the number of people who contract a long-term illness and never return to the workplace.

Under the plans, businesses will be expected to take responsibility for the health of employees by “investing in the health and well being of their staff”.

The paper highlighted the example of Cornish firm Ginsters, which has provided an on-site fitness suite for its staff, and offers employees advice on slimming, and avoiding heart disease and cancer.

Mr Purnell set out a series of tough measures to cut the number of people on benefits - which Conservatives claimed had been stolen by them.

There are 239,080 people in the West Midlands currently claiming incapacity benefit, including 53,280 in Birmingham alone.

Sandwell has 16,300 incapacity benefit claimants, while Walsall has 13,250 and Dudley has 23,220.

Birmingham constituencies also have the highest level of Jobseekers Allowance claimants in the country. In Birmingham Ladywood, 6,835 people are claiming Jobseekers Allowance, 18.6 per cent of the population - more than any other constituency in Britain.

Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency has the second highest figure, with 13.9 per cent of the population on Jobseekers Allowance, 5,298 people.

And Birmingham Hodge Hill has the third worst record in the country, with 11.3 per cent of the population on Jobseekers Allowance, or 3,225 people.

The figures, which cover June 2008, were published by the House of Commons library last week. Constituencies in Liverpool and Manchester are in fourth and fifth place.

The proposals, which had been widely leaked over the weekend, included moving all incapacity benefits on to new benefits which involve regular assessments to see if they are, in fact, capable of working.

Jobseekers Allowance claimants who fail to find a job after two years will be required to carry out full-time or part-time work - or risk losing their benefits.

Private and voluntary businesses will be offered the chance to bid to run employment services, with bonus payments if they succeed in getting unemployed people into a job.

Benefits for heroin and crack cocaine addicts will also be cut unless they agree to undergo treatment.

Single parents will be told to find work once their youngest child is seven. And mothers will be expected to reveal the name of their child’s father on birth certificates.

Tories welcomed the plans and, perhaps mischievously, offered to support the Government if it faced a rebellion from its own backbenchers.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne said the reforms were inspired by Conservative ideas and some were taken directly from Tory policy papers.

“We regard today as a victory for the centre right in British politics,” he said. “It’s about getting the private and voluntary sector involved in the delivery of welfare, and it’s about being tough with people and saying we do expect you to work.”

He said the Work and Pensions Secretary could need Tory support in the Commons as some Labour MPs might not be happy with his plans.

Mr Purnell, who is seen as a potential future Labour leader, said told the House of Commons the proposals were fair for both claimants and the taxpayer.

Unemployment claimants will have to work for their benefits for at least four weeks a year - and after two years out of work, “we will explore full time work programmes and other approaches such as daily signing”.

He added: “Work works and it is only fair that we make sure a life on benefits is not an option.”