Rural jobseekers won't struggle: Fed govt

Job seekers living in regional Australia won't struggle to meet new requirements for their welfare payments, the federal government has reassured them.

Job seekers aged 30 to 49 will have to undertake activity requirements of 50 hours a fortnight, up from 30 hours.

Those aged 60 to the pension age will need to undertake 10 hours.

"The idea of those activities is that you can do any number of things," Social Services Minister Christian Porter told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

He argued the activities range from volunteer work, to education, training and study and will not affect areas lacking in job opportunities.

"I don't join very heavily with this notion that it is difficult in a whole range of areas to undertake those activities," he said.

"With effort you certainly can, but the existing system does cope for those very rare occasions when there are some availability issues."

New welfare recipients will also be selected at random and tested for drugs including ecstasy, ice and marijuana.

Mr Porter said those who undertake rehabilitation will be able to count that time towards their required activity hours.

"This is just a commonsense change," Mr Porter said.

"What we think we can achieve through this is to ensure people at that absolutely critical point in their life when they're searching for a job, engage in behaviours that assist them in that process and don't destroy that process."