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.”

Over a seven-day period since the Covid-19 crisis began, 5.8million calls to the UC helpline were made.

Some of the up to 2,000 workers who are being asked to go back to work will help process them.

There are plans to have 500 people in offices at any one time.

The Home Office was accused of a “cavalier approach” after staff were reportedly told that 80% of the population will get infected and “we cannot hide away from it forever

Over a seven-day period since the Covid-19 crisis began, 5.8million calls to the UC helpline were made 

The Home Office said it was adhering to Public Health England’s guidance by maintaining social distancing at passport offices and added there was no advice saying that you should only go to work if you are an “essential” or “key” worker.

Coronavirus: Pressure on Priti Patel after Home Office staff told to return to work

On a conference call on Tuesday, staff were told by the Home Office deputy scientific adviser, Rupert Shute, that 80% of people would get Covid-19 in the end.

According to a leaked transcript of a Zoom meeting Shute said: “You are no more at risk at the workplace as you would be in your home or at the supermarket. It is about minimising it.

“We are working on the assessment that 80% of us, if we haven’t already, will get the virus.” He added: “We cannot hide away from it forever.”