yes, I'd like to believe that it's something they know is unworkable. So they talk it up, get the media praise for being brutal to the poor, and nobody will notice when it fails to go anywhere.

but...germany has something very similar with the "one euro jobs" system. [in fact it's even worse than the UK proposal. Not only are people forced to work for less money than they'd get from picking up beer bottles in the park, but the government then uses this as a reason to no longer count them as unemployed]