Requirements for the long-term unemployed to apply for a minimum number of positions a month in return for the dole will be loosened under a new model.

The government will transform obligations for dole recipients as the number of those on unemployment benefits for five years or more climbs to 20 per cent.

The one-size-fits-all scheme will be replaced by three streams as Labor grapples with the best way to assist the country’s growing cohort of long-term unemployed people.