South Derbyshire District Council has seen a 60 per cent spike in claims for housing benefit since March 23.

And, across the county, hundreds of vulnerable Derbyshire residents are being pushed to claim benefits as the Covid-19 pandemic stretches household finances to breaking point.

In Derbyshire, our district and borough councils say they have seen a large spike in claimants for housing benefit and council tax relief – forms of support directly linked to Universal Credit.

This includes hundreds more people applying for benefit assistance – largely due to being placed on furlough schemes or even being made redundant during the Covid-19 pandemic.

South Derbyshire - which includes Swadlincote - was among the authorities approached for comment by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

It was asked how many claims had been made locally, but also how they themselves were supporting local residents pushed onto Universal Credit, and if they were worried about the widespread impact on vulnerable families.

South Derbyshire revealed that, since March 23, it has received125 new claims for housing benefit, which it says is a 60 per cent increase on the previous two weeks.

A council spokesperson said: "We have seen an increase in claims for housing benefit and local council tax support since the coronavirus (Covid-19) measures were introduced by the Government.

"We are doing all we can to process new claims for housing benefit for pension age claimants, and new claims for council tax support as quickly as we can, so we can get support to those in need.

"We are also working to implement the Government's hardship fund that will support working-age residents who claim council tax support."

In the UK as a whole, almost 950,000 people across the UK applied for Universal Credit in the past few weeks alone – nearly 10 times the usual 100,000 across two weeks.

The Department for Work and Pensions, which processes the claims, usually has 55,000 calls a week.

This has sky-rocketed to 1.8 million calls in the week March 23-27 and 2.2 million calls were made on March 30 alone.

Of the many claimants, around 60 per cent are asking for a week's advance payment – there is a five-week waiting period for new benefit claimants.

Universal Credit is the catch-all scheme for all benefits such as housing and unemployment.

The DWP was approached for comment but all phone numbers listed would not connect. It was then approached on Twitter several days ago and it has not responded.