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People forced onto benefits due to coronavirus may not receive their payments on time, the Department for Work and Pensions has admitted.

There have been 1.4 million claims for Universal Credit in a month, compared to the 220,000 claims normally filed in the same period, as people lose their jobs or see their income fall thanks to Covid-19 and the lockdown.

But only 87% of Universal Credit claims are usually paid on time and in full. And officials will only say that they hope to "do better" as they help cash-strapped households - while admitting "you can never get to 100%".

They also said some claimants would receive less money than they exected.

Neil Couling, change director general and senior responsible owner Universal Credit, said he is “confident” that the department is in “a very good place” to exceed the 87% of Universal Credit payments which, on average, were received fully and promptly before the pandemic.

But as the earliest claimants became able to see the first sum that will arrive in their bank accounts on April 22, a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokeswoman warned that initial payments are “going to be an issue”, as some people “may be surprised that it is not as much as they were expecting”.

This would be due to any income or redundancy payments a claimant may have received affecting the amount they are entitled to, she said.

Asked whether 87% of claimants will be paid in full and on time, Mr Couling said: “I think we’ll do better than that, definitely.

But he added that “you can never get to 100%” and admitted that people may think “that’s not quite what I was expecting” when they see their first payment total.

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Mr Couling admitted his department is “climbing a really big mountain” but is in “good shape” ahead of the peak week.

“Next week, that’s the really peak week,” he said. “So we had about 270,000 claims in the first week of the pandemic, we had 540,000 roughly in the second week, then about 380,000, and last week was about 220,000.

“So that’s the kind of mountain we’ve got to go up. I’m increasingly confident we’ll do the half a million based on the rate at which we’re clearing the cases, how hard people are working across DWP and the extra resources.

“Be in no doubt…I would lay serious amounts of money, we’re going to get these claims done and it is our duty to get them done and everybody inside DWP is working their socks off to get this done.”

Mr Couling confirmed that the department has received 1.4 million Universal Credit claims, compared to the 220,000 normally filed in an average month, including “about three times the normal rate of claims for people who are self-employed”.

He added that the monthly assessment period for those who first submitted claims on 16 March has concluded and, from Wednesday, they “can see on their online account how much they are due and that will be paid on April 22”.

As of April 12, the department had already paid 513,000 advances, he said.

Mr Couling also revealed the department has recruited 20,000 extra processors, including diverting 10,000 workers, with plans to recruit 5,000 more.

He added that 20% of the department’s staffing, around 17,000 employees, are in long-term isolation and that they have distributed 2,000 laptops and are “rolling out about 500 a day” to enable them to work from home.