Households with foreign nationals received a record £11.9billion in Universal Credit last year, figures show. This was up from £9.5billion in 2024 and £7.5billion in 2023, according to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions, with more than half of the payments to jobless claimants.

About one in six of all Universal Credit payments in the last year were to households with foreign nationals, according to the data obtained by the Centre for Migration Control. Tory Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told The Telegraph: “These are shocking figures.

“British taxpayers should not be paying billions in benefits to foreigners, especially given that over half of these payments are for people out of work. Paying unemployed foreigners is an insult to hard-working taxpayers.”

It comes as Andy Burnham is considering whether to soften proposals by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to increase the time migrants would have to wait to settle in the UK permanently, known as indefinite leave to remain (ILR), from five to 10 years, including those already in the country.

Foreign nationals can claim Universal Credit if their immigration status gives them recourse to public funds, including those with ILR.

Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick said: “Boris Johnson lowered the minimum-salary requirement for migrants, and this ballooning benefits bill is the result.

“If Burnham bottles ILR changes, the ‘Boris wave’ risks becoming permanent and will cost taxpayers tens of billions more. Only Reform will save Britain by abolishing ILR and ending all benefits to foreign nationals.”

Robert Bates, research director at the Centre for Migration Control, said the figures “make a mockery of the suggestion that mass legal migration has been a boon for Britain’s economy”.

He added: “The importation of hundreds of thousands of low-wage, low-skilled individuals has been nothing short of a fiscal disaster and one that will only worsen should the Boris wave be given settlement.”

A government spokesman said: “Under this Government, net migration is down by 82% from its 2023 peak.

“Only people who are in the UK legally can claim taxpayer-funded benefits, of which around half are in work.

“Last November, we set out proposals to reform settlement, which will double the standard qualifying period to 10 years for most migrants, with shorter routes for those who contribute most to the UK.”