More than 135,000 new claims were made to Universal Credit on 30 and 31 March 2020. People who claimed on these two days will receive payments today.

Of the eligible claims, around 93% have been paid in full and on time. Where people haven’t been paid, it is often due to the claimant needing to provide information, such as a correct bank number, and staff will attempt to contact claimants to fill in any blanks.

Since the pandemic began, around 1.8 million claims have been made to Universal Credit and almost 700,000 advance payments made to people.

Secretary of State Therese Coffey said:

Five weeks ago today, more than 135,000 people made a claim to Universal Credit in just over 48 hours – more than we usually have a month.

Our hero workforce here at Department for Work and Pensions has been working flat out to process claims. Just this week we are paying more than £200 million to around 300,000 households who made their claim at the end of March.

The system has proved itself in the face of unprecedented demand over the last few weeks and scrutiny over the last few years.

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Published 6 May 2020