These proposals are really quite radical and I'm keen to know what people think about them.

The proposals are based around the twin objectives of making poverty history in Britain, and ending the culture of long-term welfare dependence.

The 'Welfare to Work' paper sets out how Conservatives would help create a more responsible society through reform of the welfare system.

It's really quite shocking to think that five million of us are on out of work benefits. This costs the tax payer some £100bn each and every year – by far the biggest item in public spending.

But the real cost is to the individuals who find themselves trapped in reliance on these benefits – it's one of the biggest causes of low aspirations and social breakdown.

To address this, we believe that individuals who are capable of working should accept their responsibility to work. Alongside this, the Government should accept its own responsibility to help all those who can work get back into work.

It's absolutely crucial, however, that as a society we must respect those who can't work and that Incapacity Benefit should be there for those who really need it.

That said, we would expect every out of work benefit claimant capable of doing so to work or to prepare for work and to help with this we would introduce assessments for all those claiming benefits. These assessments should be rapid and should apply to new and existing claimants.

There should also be limits to claiming out of work benefits. People who refuse to accept reasonable job offers should know that they could lose the right to claim their benefits.

Added to this, people who claim for more than two years out of any three should be required to join community work programmes.

These proposals would represent a real and thorough overhaul of the benefits system and I would like to hear the views of County Times readers.

Do you have experience of the current benefits system or simply an opinion as to if and how it should be reformed?

Either way, I'd like to hear from you so, please do drop me a line at either my Horsham office or my office at the House of Commons or via my website at www.francismaude.com.