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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.

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.

(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

Ms Coffey said payments should begin to arrive "next week" and those who need urgent cash can still apply for an advance - paid back out of future benefits.

Ms Coffey insisted the system "is functioning as it's designed to" despite capacity having to be quadrupled and admitting "Vodafone couldn't cope" with the numbers of calls coming to DWP.

She said "tens of thousands" of civil servants have been reprioritised including people "from other parts of government" - including Passport Office staff who've had a one-week crash course.

Capacity had to be quadrupled on the system for verifying people's identity after it became a major bottleneck, with more than 100,000 people waiting in a queue at a time.

The government insists Universal Credit itself is working despite enormous strain on the system.

"We are capable of processing and managing those claims," she told Sky News.

"People will start to receive financial support if they haven’t already had an advance."

It comes as the UK lockdown is expected to be extended by three weeks from Thursday.

Ms Coffey warned: "We’re talking about a battle against coronavirus that isn’t gong to be over in weeks - it will take months.”

Critics say the huge tide of 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.

Ms Coffey said she is "conscious of that" but that "people can go back to their original employers to ask to be furloughed".

But shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said: "We're getting to the stage now where it's not just Opposition figures, it's actually the public and the business community who really need to have more information, for example about how a number of different schemes are working.

"So it has taken quite a long time to get information about how many of those business interruption loans have been provided - actually the figures are significantly lower than any of us had hoped they would be at this stage."

She added: "Unless we get that support to businesses within the next two weeks or so we could have really quite a big spike in businesses going bust and in people potentially being laid off.

"So we need to get them right and to do that we need more data about how they are operating."

Speaking to Sky News about the use of masks by the general public being under review, Ms Coffey said: "So far the medical advice has been that it is only really needed in a clinical setting and it is not necessary for people, by use in public.

"As was set out, if that evidence changes then of course we will review that but thus far I'm not aware of any change that's required in order to make sure that masks become a general way of life for people.

"On the contrary, the advice is still very firm - you do not and should not be wearing masks outside unless you've had clinical instructions to do so."