Passport Office staff who have been forced to return to work are being seconded to process millions of new Universal Credit claims.
A staggering 1.2million claims have been made since lockdown began. An insider at HMPO in Glasgow has revealed staff are being given a five-day crash course in training to process them that would normally take six weeks.
Passport Office staff say they were dismayed to learn they would be responsible for being told they would be involved in sanctioning claimants as well as processing new claims.
One said: “I am distraught at the thought of leaving some vulnerable people without anything to live on for possibly weeks at a time when she has very little knowledge of the system.” Around 40,000 claims are being