WILL JONES
Benefits claims by refugee households have increased by 33% in a year as costs surge above £1 billion for the first time, Government figures show – and that’s before the recent record small boats arrivals begin to claim. The Telegraph has more.
The amount of Universal Credit paid to households with at least one claimant who is a refugee rose to £1.1 billion in 2024, an increase of a third from £828 million in 2023.
Migration experts attributed the increase – the first time it has passed £1 billion – to a surge in the number of asylum seekers being granted refugee status.
It comes as record numbers of migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats.
Foreign nationals become eligible for Universal Credit and other benefits on the same terms as British citizens once they are granted indefinite leave to remain or refugee status.
The figures will put further pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, who is planning a migration crackdown that is due to be announced later this month.
Reform UK and the Conservatives have called for a tougher approach on immigration ahead of Thursday’s by-election in Runcorn and local elections, at which Labour and the Tories are expected to suffer huge losses.
Meanwhile, Ministers are facing a backbench rebellion over the proposed £5 billion benefit cuts announced by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Spring Statement.
A senior Labour MP warned that backbench MPs would struggle to back the proposed benefits cuts for vulnerable British families when so much of the money had been handed to migrants, many of whom had arrived in the UK illegally.
Graham Stringer, MP for Blackley and Middleton South and a former leader of Manchester city council, told the Telegraph: “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.”
Mr Stringer earlier this week urged the Government to renegotiate or change the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which has been blamed for hampering the Home Office’s ability to deport foreign criminals and illegal migrants.
Neil O’Brien, a former minister who extracted the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data through freedom of information laws, said the small boats crisis, which was partly fuelling the “exploding” bill for taxpayers, would only be fixed if the UK quit the ECHR.
“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,” he said.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, claimed Labour’s “loss of border control” and record illegal immigrant numbers crossing the channel this year was “costing taxpayers billions”.
“People who enter the country illegally should be rapidly returned to their country of origin, or a safe third country such as Rwanda. That way, illegal immigrants won’t end up costing taxpayers billions,” he said.
Worth reading in full.
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