The Archbishop of Canterbury has voiced concern over the Coalition’s plans to force people in long-term unemployment into unpaid manual labour.

Speaking on BBC WM Radio, Dr Rowan Williams said the plans could push people into a “downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair”.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is to outline details of the scheme this week. Proposals would see the long-term unemployed sent out to pick up litter and carry out other forms of community work.

“One thing we can do is pull people in to do one or two weeks’ manual work – turn up at 9am and leave at 5pm – to give people a sense of work but also when we think they’re doing other work,” he said.

“The message will go across: play ball or it’s going to be difficult.”

Those who refuse to take up their Work Activity placement or turn up late risk losing their £65-a-week Jobseekers’ Allowance.

Dr Williams warned that the scheme may cause greater problems for people genuinely unable to work.

He said: “People who are struggling to find work and struggling to find a secure future are, I think, driven further into a sort of downward spiral of uncertainty, even despair, when the pressure is on in this way.

“People often are in this starting place not because they’re wicked, stupid or lazy but because their circumstances are against them, they’ve failed to break through into something, and to drive that spiral deeper – as I say – does feel a great problem.”

The scheme is being introduced in a bid to reduce the number of people receiving out-of-work benefits, which currently stands at five million. The Coalition is particularly keen to target those making fraudulent benefit claims.

The Archbishop’s warning came as he spoke of the need for the Church to be “wise” in order to help people through challenging times.

“If we learn to be a wise Church we can be a Church with its finger on the pulse of reality,” he said on the first day of his tour of the Diocese of Lichfield, according This is Staffordshire.

“This isn’t a wise world and neither is it a joyous world at the moment. It’s a world that needs a wise church.”