Thousands of people have been left unable to pay bills, post letters or collect benefits after a major technical glitch brought down every Post Office branch in the UK.

Queues of customers were turned away from Post Offices due to a computer issue which staff said had hit "every branch in the country".

The Post Office confirmed the glitch on social media, tweeting: “We're aware of issues with counter services at some branches. We're working urgently to resolve and apologise for inconvenience or delay."

The issue is now resolved but customers complained online about having to travel from branch to branch only to find that each one had been closed.

A Post Office spokeswoman said: “We apologise to customers for any inconvenience or delay caused by issues with our counter services at some branches earlier this morning.  This has now been resolved.”