by Cameron Roy, Daily Mail
More than £15billion of benefits have been handed to migrant households over the last 18 months.
Research shared exclusively with the Daily Mail reveals that 70 per cent of the eye-watering sum was given to households containing at least one unemployed foreign national.
It marks the first time that Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials have disclosed the amount of welfare doled out to help unemployed migrants.
Critics claim the shock figures, unearthed by the Centre for Migration Control think-tank, are evidence that hardworking Brits are being ‘walloped with tax rises’ to fund the lifestyle of foreign nationals.
Robert Bates, research director at the Centre for Migration Control, said: ‘It is a no-brainer that we should be ending benefit payments to foreign nationals, especially those who are unemployed.
‘The British taxpayer does not exist to fund the lifestyle of migrants.
‘It is unconscionable that hardworking men and women are being walloped with tax rises, and experiencing a decline in living standards, whilst billions are being wasted in this manner.
‘We need to end Indefinite Leave to Remain to ensure that the British welfare system only helps those who are citizens of this country.’
Of the £15bn figure, obtained via freedom of information laws, £9.5bn of Universal Credit was doled out in 2024.
Another £5.6bn was paid in the six months to the end of June 2025.
The figure covers households where at least one claimant declared themselves to be a foreign national (non-UK, Crown Dependency or Ireland) who had passed the Habitual Residence Test (showing the UK is their main home).