Jobseekers will have to do more to prove they are seeking work or face losing benefits in measures likely to be announced at the Conservative party conference.

At present jobseekers have to satisfy two criteria: putting together a CV and seeking information about a job, which ministers believe are not enough.

The centre-right thinktank Policy Exchange has produced research that showed the amount of time spent searching for a job is an average of eight minutes a day. Polling showed nearly half the public thought claimants should spend two to five hours a day looking for work.

Policy Exchange's latest report – the third in a series on welfare reform – found the current "job-search" requirements for some claimants were so "weak" that in some cases, looking in a newspaper for jobs counted as active searching. Officials at the Department for Work and Pensions have held concerns about committing to any beefed up demands on jobseekers, believing the cost of monitoring any new scheme could be counter productive.

Earlier this month the prime minister said the government would be smashing "old taboos and sensitivities" and going even further in its welfare reforms.

"It wasn't enough to end the poisonous something-for-nothing system we had under Labour. Given the scale of the problem, can't we go further? Say by asking much more of people on benefits who should be looking for work – or imposing even stricter penalties on those who refuse job offers?" he said.

A wide range of ideas were floated in Downing Street, including the closing of the current 13-week window in which a claimant could turn down job opportunities offered to them by Jobcentres. Instead jobseeker's allowance claimants would have to accept any work in that 13 week period.

Another suggestion thought to have gained traction was that the unemployed could be forced to spend the hours between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday, seeking work or preparing themselves for employment or lose benefits.

The Tories are keen to push for a greater 'conditionality' element as suggested by Policy Exchange, which said strengthening requirements in this way was the most "cost effective" way of reducing unemployment and cutting the cost of welfare to the state.

They called for new conditions to ensure claimants were doing all they could to find work.

The thinktank's paper called for a new points-based system that recognised different "job-search" activities that those on jobseeker's allowance are required to carry out each week. "Attending a job interview", which is currently not a recognised job seeking activity, would earn claimants a greater number of points than "putting together a CV" or "seeking information about a job".

Claimants would have to reach a specific number of points each week to receive their benefits. If they failed to reach the minimum target benefits would be withheld.

The Tory conference is expected to see a series of policy initiatives to tighten up the welfare regime as David Cameron moves into the same territory as Ed Miliband. The Labour leader suggested priority on council house waiting lists should be given to those who take an active role in their community in his conference speech.

Both Labour and the Conservatives are keen to develop policies that emphasise actions a person has undertaken in return for benefits they receive as opinion polls showed such a "something for something" agenda resonated strongly with the public.