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Unemployed people who refuse to learn English stand to lose their benefits under new proposals to be outlined by the government.

Welfare minister Jim Murphy is expected to say later today that 40,000 individuals unable to speak English are struggling to find work as a result; costing job centres £4.5 million in translator fees.

He will insist that the high proportion of people from ethnic minorities that cannot find work is "unacceptable", as well as the fact that they routinely earn a third less than other workers.

"We must utilise the resources we have to redress the balance: to put the emphasis not just on translating language to claim a benefit, but to teaching language to get a job," Mr Murphy is expected to tell the Work Foundation seminar in London.

"Not just for the sake of employment rates, but for the benefit of the individual, their community and society as a whole."

Mr Murphy will also outline plans to encourage jobseekers to take advantage of language learning opportunities available.

He is expected to say: "Wherever possible, we would like them to participate in a work-focused language course, where they exist.

"People will be able and expected to look for work while they undertake any training, and in many cases there will also be the provision to carry on with the training course after they have got a job."

The minister's speech comes as thinktank Civitas publishes research claiming that 30 per cent of British households receive half or more of their income from state benefits.

Today's report from David Green states that during the ten years of Tony Blair's premiership, spending on welfare has "created not a more empowered people, but deeper welfare dependency".