The annual benefits bill for refugee households has topped £1billion after surging by a third in just a year, new figures show.
Data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed the total amount of universal credit paid to households with at least one refugee claimant soared to £1.1billion last year, up from £828million in 2023.
Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, who obtained the figures through freedom of information laws, said rising costs could only be addressed if Britain quit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
‘The Government has dishonestly attempted to try and hide the ballooning costs by waving more and more people through into the welfare system so that they will no longer technically count as asylum seekers,’ he said.
‘But the cost in the real world doesn’t go away and people can increasingly see that in their communities as more hotels open and more asylum seekers arrive into deprived areas across the country.
‘This billion pounds is just one small part of the overall cost and the fact that is is rising so rapidly is very alarming.’
Mr O’Brien said the small boats crisis was partly fuelling the ‘exploding’ bill to the taxpayer.
‘Far from Starmer’s smashing the gangs, the gangs are smashing him,’ the MP said.
‘It has been a complete failure as everyone predicted, because he hasn’t addressed soft touch Britain and the reasons people are coming.
‘Human rights lawyers like Starmer are the reason we have this problem in the first place.
‘Everyone knows if they can make it to the UK they will be allowed to stay because of human rights law. ‘
Mr O’Brien told the Telegraph: ‘None of this will be fixed until we exit from this thicket of human rights law which leads to illegal immigrants being prioritised over British people who have paid in all their lives.’
Experts said the increase was attributable to a surge in the number of asylum claimants being granted refugee status by the Home Office in recent years, allowing them to claim universal credit and other benefits.
Migrants disembark from a Border Force vessel at Dover earlier this week
Director of Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, Madeleine Sumption, said: ‘Between December 2022 and December 2023, the number of people with refugee permission increased by 86 per cent.’
Government figures from February showed asylum claims have surged under Labour to hit more than 108,000 last year – the highest number since records began in 1979.
The biggest increase came in the second half of the year – following the general election – when more than 61,383 asylum bids were lodged, compared with 50,352 during the same period in 2023.
Tory MP and shadow minister Neil O’Brien, who obtained official data showing universal credit spending on households with at least one refugee occupant hit £1.1billion last year
The annual total – an 18 per cent year-on-year rise – smashed the previous record set during the early 2000s asylum crisis by five per cent.
One of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s first acts after taking power was scrapping the Rwanda asylum deal, which was designed by the previous Conservative government to deter Channel small boat crossings.
The data showed the number of asylum claims which were actually granted fell 37 per cent to just under 40,000, mainly because the previous Tory government put cases on hold last spring.
Migrants arrive at the Port of Dover earlier this week after being picked up in the middle of the Channel by a UK Border Force catamaran
But Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper reversed that move in July, allowing processing to restart.
The Government has begun clearing asylum backlogs – including claimants who had been earmarked to be sent to Rwanda – and an expected surge in granted cases will be revealed in figures due to be published later this month.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged a migration crackdown with a white paper due later later this month.
Separately, Ms Cooper is reviewing the way Article 8 of the ECHR – the right to private and family life – is used in immigration cases.
Labour is facing a backbench rebellion over the proposed £5billion in benefit cuts announced by the Chancellor in her spring statement.
One senior Labour MP, Graham Stringer, said soaring spending on welfare for refugees meant backing broad benefits cuts would be ‘made more difficult’ for many of his colleagues.
Labour MP Graham Stringer MP said rising refugee welfare costs would make broader benefits cuts ‘more difficult’ for many of his party’s backbenchers
The MP for Blackley and Middleton South said: ‘This data is an indication of part of the cost of a failure to control our borders.
‘Later this year Labour MPs will be asked to vote to cut benefits.
‘The Government’s failure to control this budget on immigration will make that decision much more difficult for many Labour MPs.’
A government source said: ‘The Tories left the asylum system in chaos. On their watch, small boat crossings went from a few hundreds in 2018 to a record of over 45,000 crossings in 2022.
‘A Labour Government is fixing the Tories’ mess, going after the criminal smuggling gangs who were able to take root right along our border.
‘We are also getting a grip of the welfare system, which the Tories broke, by putting new support in place to get people back to work and put the finances on a more sustainable footing.’
According to the DWP’s letter to Mr O’Brien, the proportion of universal credit spending on households with at least one refugee rose from 1.7 per cent of the total in 2023 to 1.8 per cent in 2024.
The amount paid was £1,103,000,000 in 2024, the document showed.
A DWP spokesman said: ‘The application process is thorough, and illegal migrants with no immigration status cannot receive universal credit.’
