London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Nearly two million claim universal credit

Nearly two million claim universal credit

Nearly two million people have applied for universal credit benefits since the government advised people to stay at home due to coronavirus.

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said there had been more than 1.8 million claims since 16 March.

Ms Coffey told MPs that figure was six times the normal claimant rate, and in one week there had been a "tenfold" increase in claims.

She said about 8,000 staff had been redeployed to deal with the claims.

The figures show the growing increase in demand on the benefit system since the government urged people to avoid non-essential travel and contact with others to curb the spread of the virus.

Ms Coffey told MPs there had also been more than 250,000 claims for Jobseeker's Allowance and over 20,000 claims for Employment Support Allowance.


Advance payments


"Overall, this is six times the volume that we would typically experience and in one week we had a tenfold increase".

She said that the rate for universal credit had appeared to have stabilised at about 20,000 to 25,000 claims per day, which she said was "double that of a standard week pre Covid-19."

She added: "We've also issued almost 700,000 advances to claimants who felt that they could not wait for their routine payment and the vast majority of these claimants received money within 72 hours."

Universal credit is a consolidated monthly payment for those of working-age, which replaced a host of previous benefits including income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, housing benefit, child tax credit and working tax credit.

In October 2019, there were 2.6 million universal credit claimants - just over a third of whom were in work.


'Too many holes'


Labour's Jonathan Reynolds said the government needed to "widen the safety net" of support for everyone who needs it.

The shadow work and pensions secretary said: "The social security system we had going in to this crisis was a safety net with too many holes in it".

Mr Reynolds said that the amount universal credit claimants receive had been significantly increased since the lockdown began, but asked when people on legacy benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance would see the same increases.

He highlighted calls from charities and anti-poverty campaigners to temporarily suspend the benefit cap, which puts a limit on the overall amount working age families can claim.

And he said the two-child limit, which restricts the child element in universal credit and tax credits - worth £2,780 per child per year - to the first two children should be lifted.


New jobs website


"People three years ago could not have been expected to make family choices based on the likelihood of a global pandemic shutting down our economy," said Mr Reynolds.

"The government has suspended sanctions during the crisis but the two-child limit is effectively an 18-year sanction on the third and fourth child in a family and surely it should go too."

Mr Reynolds also said the five-week wait for the first payment of universal credit, another issue highlighted by charities as a cause of hardship despite the availability of advance loans, "should not exist at all".

And he raised concerns over the impact of universal credit on maternity allowance, warning it could result in a "low-paid pregnant woman being as much as £4,000 a year worse off".

MPs thanked front line staff for their work processing the unprecedented increase in the number of claims for support.

Ms Coffey said that average waiting times for calls to DWP helplines were "now below five minutes".

The work and pensions secretary also said a new government website had been set up to advertise new jobs, which had 58,200 vacancies on offer.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×