No free lunch?

Much fuss being made over the Government's plans to force the long-term unemployed to do "unpaid manual work" like picking up litter or tending for public parks and gardens.  I have no particular views on the rightness or wrongness of such a plan, but I do take exception to the idea that such work would be "unpaid" - what about the benefit they are getting?  At present they are effectively being paid for not working, so at least this way they would be doing something for their money.