Benefits claims by refugee households have increased by 33 per cent in a year, reaching £1.1bn in 2024, Government figures show.
This marks the first time such claims have passed the £1bn threshold, rising from £828 million in 2023.
The figures were revealed through freedom of information requests to the Department for Work and Pensions. Migration experts have attributed the increase to a surge in the number of asylum seekers being granted refugee status.
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 rising costs come amid record numbers of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats. The increase puts further pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, who is planning a migration crackdown to be announced later this month.
Refugee benefits claims hit £1.1bn
PAOn Thursday, Channel crossings passed 11,000 for the year - the earliest this milestone has been reached since small boats began arriving seven years ago. Numbers are up by more than 40 per cent compared to 2024.
Approvals of asylum claims have hit the highest level since records began nearly 40 years ago. More than 110,000 applications were granted in 2023 and 2024.
Graham Stringer, Labour MP for Blackley and Middleton South, told The Telegraph: "This data is an indication of part of the cost of a failure to control our borders."
He warned that Labour MPs would struggle to back proposed £5bn benefit cuts for vulnerable British families when "so much of the money had been handed to migrants".
Approvals of asylum claims have hit the highest level since records began nearly 40 years ago
PAChris Philp, the shadow home secretary, claimed Labour's "loss of border control" was "costing taxpayers billions".
Neil O'Brien, a former minister who obtained the DWP data, said the small-boats crisis would only be fixed if the UK quit the European Convention on Human Rights.
A Government source responded that "the Tories left the asylum system in chaos" and Labour is "fixing the Tories' mess" by targeting criminal smuggling gangs.
Madeleine Sumption, director of Oxford University's Migration Observatory, cited two key factors behind the rise in benefit claims.
She pointed to "the large increase in the number of people with refugee permission due to the efforts to reduce the backlog" and an 11 per cent uprating in individual payments.
"Between December 2022 and December 2023, the number of people with refugee permission increased by 86 per cent," she said.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said refugees "are determined to give back to the communities that have welcomed them". He added that many "will often need some help while they find a job that pays enough to move off universal credit".
The Government is forecast to spend £75.8bn on Universal Credit in 2025-26, up from £65bn in the previous year. According to the DWP, the proportion of Universal Credit accounted for by refugee households rose from 1.7 per cent in 2023 to 1.8 per cent in 2024.
The total Universal Credit bill is set to hit £89 billion by the end of the decade.
A DWP spokesman said: "The application process is thorough, and illegal migrants with no immigration status cannot receive universal credit."
Migrant crisis: More than 2,000 migrants arrive in UK in RECORD WEEK for crossingsMigrant crisis: More than 2,000 migrants arrive in UK in RECORD WEEK for crossingsHe added that asylum seekers can only receive payments once granted refugee status.
The Government has committed to reviewing Universal Credit to ensure it tackles poverty, makes work pay and incentivises people back into jobs.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is drawing up a new "common sense" legal framework to end "ad hoc" decisions by immigration judges.
Labour's market reforms aim to "drive up employment and opportunity and grow the economy".
