Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he will take to increase staffing of the universal credit helpline in response to increasing demand as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

Our priority as a Department is ensuring people get their benefit payments and that we can continue to support those who need us the most. We have mobilised our robust business continuity plans to ensure we can do just that. We are already redeploying 10,000 staff from other parts of DWP and are also recruiting additional staff to assist with the processing of claims, including support from other government departments and the private sector.