The Universal Credit website went down this morning, with thousands of people unable to access Gov.uk and HMRC pages. Downdetector - which allows users to report issues with apps and websites - reported a huge spike in issues starting from around 5am.

       According to the platform, 57% of users reported problems logging in to their accounts with HMRC, while 38% reported issues with the website. 6% reported having issues with the HMRC app. Of those who reported issues with the Gov.uk website, 62% had trouble logging in, and 38% experienced trouble with the website generally.

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       Millions of Britons rely on these portals for essential services, including submitting tax returns, applying for benefits, speaking with work coaches, and accessing important government information.

       Users attempting to access GOV.UK pages, including the Universal Credit login, encountered a message saying: "Sorry, the service is unavailable. Try again later."

       One X user asked the GOV.UK social media page: "What is wrong with your Universal Credit website?"

       Another user attempting to access the HMRC website asked its customer support team: "Good morning, I can’t access my NI records. After logging in the message: Sorry, there is a problem with the service appears. How long will it be down?"

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       The HMRC customer support responded: "You will need to try the service at a later time, as it may be due to the number of users trying to access the service. We will get this raised however we can't provide a current fix time at present unfortunately." [SIC]

       This comes following an outage last night following a segment from the Martin Lewis Money Show, encouraging the public to check their state pension forecasts on the HMRC website.

       The money guru explained how Britons can turn ￡800 into ￡5,000 by boosting state pensions. People have until April 5 to purchase missing National Insurance years dating back to 2006. After this date, people will only be able to purchase years from within the previous six tax years - which could lose people thousands.

       Mr Lewis announced the website had crashed five minutes into the programme.

       The issues with both websites appeared to have subsided just before 9am this morning.