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Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said he doesn't think Universal Basic Income is the "right response" to coronavirus.

Instead Mr Sunak has defended Universal Credit which many of those who have lost their jobs because of covid-19 and are facing hardship are having to fall back on.

Some 1.6million benefit claims have now been made since coronavirus began devastating the UK, the Tory welfare chief said today.

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said 1.4million claims for Universal Credit have now been made since the middle of March - around 7 times the usual average.

On top of that, she said, there have been 200,000 claims for 'legacy' benefits Jobseekers' Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance.

(Image: 10 Downing Street/Getty)

Just 360,000 of the Universal Credit claimants have already received cash since March 16, after applying for an advance.

Others are waiting for money to arrive because there is a five-week standard wait for first payment.

The government's Universal Credit helpline has been struggling with the number of calls - including 5.8million in the first week of Apri.

Officials have been forced to quadruple capacity in some areas after being swamped with desperate new claimants to the six-in-one benefit.

The figure included 2.2million calls to the DWP's helpline on a single day, Monday 30 March.

Today the Chancellor was asked whether Universal Credit is a good enough safety net and, if not, whether he is open to proposals such as Universal Basic Income.

"I don't think Universal Basic Income is the right response to this."

He added: "I think Universal Credit is working well, obviously DWP staff are under strain like many other organisations across the country because they're dealing with people being sick and away as well but I think, given the circumstances, they are processing claims efficiently and effectively.

"We've provided some extra resource to DWP to help them with that but their staff do deserve praise for what they're doing.

(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

"We've also injected extra resources to deal with the particular nature of this crisis into the welfare system whether that's strengthening Universal Credit temporarily for this year, working tax credits or, indeed, local housing allowance, local council tax support - all of those interventions which will total several billions of pounds," he said.

"Because of the unprecedented nature of what we're facing will go to supporting the most vulnerable people in our country."

Critics say the huge tide of benefit cases is because of holes in the government's support schemes.

Self-employed people can get 80% of their average profits but the cash is only available in June.

And people who started a new job after February 28 cannot get 80% of their wage under the government's furloughed workers scheme.

During the daily Downing Street press conference Mr Sunak warned that there are "tough times" to come after a devastating report said two million jobs could be lost to the coronavirus lockdown.

He said he was "troubled" by the projection - but said he was confident that the UK would "bounce back" quickly when the crisis is over.

He said: "These are tough times and there are more to come.

"I've always said we can't protect every business, and we can't protect every household, but we came into this with a fundamentally sound economy."

The Chancellor said he expected the damage to be "temporary", and said he believes the economy will "bounce back".

He admitted that intervention to protect jobs had "cost a lot", but would not be drawn on the impact on public spending as the government tackles the deficit after the crisis.

On borrowing and the public finances, Mr Sunak said: "This year the OBR is right to say there will be a significant increase in borrowing, we are borrowing a significant amount in order to fund these measures.

"I think that's absolutely the right decision and, as the OBR have said, I think the cost of not doing that would be far worse than if we did do what we're doing."

He added: "The interventions we've put in place are largely temporary and do not need to be repeated on a year by year basis. So hopefully that will allow us to get to a sustainable position reasonably soon after we exit."