Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan says the coronavirus pandemic has caused widespread disruption to the lives of the vast majority of the population.

Speaking at a press briefing this lunchtime, he revealed a sharp rise in the number claiming unemployment benefit.

And he said that more than £1m of public funds had been expended so far in providing financial support to businesses.

He said some were facing a ’serious and significant’ drop in income and the disruption varied from household to household and business to business.

’Some of you will now be collecting welfare support for the first time,’ he said. ’For all of you this must be a massive shock and a time of worry and uncertainty.’

Mr Cannan said the number of people registered for Job Seekers’ Allowance, and indicating they are unemployed, had gone up by 457 in the last few weeks, which he described as a ’significant increase on recent figures’.

The Minister said 1,143 had applied for direct financial support from the new MERA Covid benefit which launched on Monday.

Mr Cannan said registration for the salary support scheme that will help companies keep staff in jobs will open online shortly after the Easter weekend.

There have been 2,327 applications for grants under the business support scheme, he added.

’We have already paid out over £1m to qualifying businesses and expect to continue to receive applications. We are working as fast as possible to process these claims,’ he said.

Mr Cannan accepted there had been some element of confusion, delay and misunderstanding with the processing and Treasury was working with the Department for Enterprise ’to understand these issues and bring clarity’.

But he said government had a responsibility to the taxpayer to ensure funds were spent properly.

And he warned action would be taken against anyone who deliberately tried to misappropriate public money.