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Thousands of benefit claimants have been left waiting more than 10 weeks for payments under the Tories' bungled Universal Credit scheme.

It comes amid growing calls for the government to halt the rollout of the benefits shake-up, and to cut the six-week waiting time for benefits to four weeks.

And Tory Work and Pensions Secretary David Gauke today admitted 1 in 25 claimants one in 25 Universal Credit claimants still isn't paid in full TEN WEEKS after moving on to the benefit.

With 57,000 people signing up for Universal Credit last month alone, the figure amounts to thousands of people kept waiting for benefits.

MPs said even the six-week wait - which counts as being "on time" - was not good enough.

Tory MP Heidi Allen said soaring advance payments, now paid to 52% of claimants and expected to rise further, were simply "papering over the fact that the six week wait just doesn't work".

(Image: Daily Mirror)

And she slammed Mr Gauke's claim that the six-week wait reflects "the way many people in work" are paid, saying she barely knew anyone who had to wait that long.

David Gauke told the Work and Pensions Select Committee there are "choices available to us" and he could "see the case" for trying to bring parts of the six-week wait down.

He added "I don't think the month's assessment" - the main component of the waiting time - "is inherent within the system".

But he warned any changes would cost the DWP money - and claimed the six-week wait gave claimants "certainty" about when they would get their cash.

Mr Gauke said 81% of people are now paid in full within six weeks, and another 8% to 9% receive some of their money but not all.

His chief civil servant Neil Couling claimed some of the remaining 10% have "misunderstood what's required of them" so not all cases are the DWP's fault.

Committee chair Frank Field slammed the Cabinet minister for refusing to provide fuller statistics about the number of people waiting six, 10 or 12 weeks.

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Earlier in the session, Mr Gauke made a humiliating climbdown on the helpline offered to claimants struggling with the shake-up, which costs up to 55p a minute to call.

The Work and Pensions secretary bowed to public pressure and revealed this morning that all DWP phone lines will be made free within three months.

It comes a week after Jeremy Corbyn blasted the Prime Minister after it emerged the DWP charged claimants struggling with the bungled rollout of the benefits shake-up up to 55p a minute.

He said: "I have decided that this will change to a free phone number over the next month."

Mr Gauke added: "I will be extending the freephone numbers to all of DWP's phone lines by the end of the year"

Theresa May faces a backbench rebellion on the rollout, which the Citizens Advice Bureau have branded a "disaster waiting to happen."

Universal Credit, which combines six working age benefits into a single payment, has proved controversial because one in five people are forced to wait more than six weeks for their first payment.

Even people paid “on time” have to wait up to six weeks.

Around 25 Tory MPs are understood to be ready to rebel in an opposition vote on Universal Credit later today.

The motion calls for the rollout to be halted until the failings in the system can be ironed out.

While the vote is non-binding, it would be an embarrassing defeat for the government.