David Cameron is set to call for a wider debate about welfare, arguing the current system promotes a "something for nothing" culture of entitlement.
In a speech in Kent, the prime minister will say that many of his ideas for change are for the next Conservative manifesto not the coalition government.
He will say the system is encouraging working-age people to have children but not work - making taxpayers resentful.
One of the ideas he is considering is removing housing benefit for under-25s.
BBC political correspondent Vicki Young said Mr Cameron's speech would be seen as an attempt to reconnect with disgruntled Tory backbenchers who had accused him of allowing the Lib Dems to water down traditional party values.
But she said the Lib Dems insisted that the coalition had already brought in sweeping changes to welfare.
'Strange signals'Mr Cameron's ideas were previewed in an interview in the Mail on Sunday in which he said the existing welfare system was sending out "strange signals" on working, housing and families.
Scrapping housing benefit for people aged under 25 would save almost £2bn a year but housing charity Shelter fears the consequences of such a move.
Its chief executive, Campbell Robb, said: "To take away housing benefit from hundreds of thousands of young people - particularly in the current economic environment where young people in particular are finding it very difficult to find jobs - would have a devastating impact on many people's lives".
"I think we would see many more people ending up homeless as a result of this kind of very significant change."
On Sunday, Labour said the idea could see young people knocked off the career ladder and a "serious back-to-work programme" was needed instead.
Mr Cameron also suggested introducing new curbs on the jobseeker's allowance.
'Bed changes in'Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told BBC One's Sunday Politics that Mr Cameron was free to set out his own thinking but that the coalition had already brought in radical welfare reform, which should be allowed to "bed-in".
In March, the government's Welfare Reform Act received Royal Assent. That act - which applies to England, Scotland and Wales - introduces an annual cap on benefits and overhauls many welfare payments.
In recent weeks the numbers of people claiming housing benefit reached five million for the first time.
Chancellor George Osborne indicated in his March Budget that the welfare bill should be cut by another £10bn between 2015 - the expected year of the next election - and 2017. That is on top of the £18bn of cuts during the current parliament.
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