Young people could be stripped of the dole if they are not working or in education under a Conservative government, the prime minister has announced.
In his keynote conference speech to delegates in Manchester yesterday, David Cameron said everyone under 25 should be “earning or learning”.
He also repeated his call for the rest of the UK to call on Scotland to reject independence.
But it was his section on benefits that is likely to prove controversial.
Mr Cameron said: “Today it is still possible to leave school, sign on, find a flat, start claiming housing benefit and opt for a life on benefits.
“It’s time for bold action here. We should ask, as we write our next manifesto, if that option should really exist at all.
“Instead, we should give young people a clear, positive choice: go to school, go to college, do an apprenticeship, get a job.
“But just choose the dole? We’ve got to offer them something better than that.
“And let no one paint ideas like this as callous.”
He said parents would “nag and push and guide” their children, so the state should do the same.
The prime minister also claimed arguments about the economy, jobs and currency had made “an unanswerable case for the UK”.
But he wanted a more “simple message” to go out to the people of Scotland.
Mr Cameron said: “From us here in this hall, from me, from this country, from England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and it’s this: we want you to stay, we want to stick together.
“Think of all we’ve achieved together, the things we can do together. The nations – as one. Our kingdom – united.”
The prime minister later worked Scotland into his reference to a Russian official who, prior to the G20 summit in St Petersburg last month, described Britain as “a small island that no one pays any attention to.”
After listing the country’s historical achievements, Mr Cameron said: “I haven’t even got on to the fact that this small island beat Russia in the Olympics last year – or that the biggest-selling vodka brand in the world isn’t Russian. It’s British – Smirnoff – made in Fife.”
The SNP’s Westminster leader, Angus Robertson MP, said: “David Cameron’s government is driving and directing the No campaign in Scotland – consuming the entire Whitehall machine – yet Mr Cameron is trying to hide himself even further away from debate and cross-examination.”