The British taxpayer is currently footing the bill for a record number of out-of-work migrants, costing the government up to £8.5 billion per year, according to research by the Centre for Migration Control. The think tank found that there are now 1,689,000 foreigners unemployed or otherwise “economically inactive” in the UK – the highest level on record and surpassing the previous high of 1,628,000 in 2012.
Researchers at the Centre for Migration Control have calculated that support for unemployed immigrants could cost the taxpayer as much as £8.5 million per year, though this estimate does not include the costs of asylum seekers and foreign students to the state, meaning the total financial drain of mass migration policies is likely much higher.
Robert Bates, research director at the think tank, told the Daily Mail that “for all the talk of a fiscal ‘black hole’, the Labour Government seem to be missing the glaringly obvious fact that mass migration is causing economic pandemonium. He added that there was no reason for the UK to continue handing out so many long-term visas when over a million migrants were already in Britain but not working, calling it “the very definition of a Ponzi scheme.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage echoed these sentiments, stating that the economic arguments for mass migration are now over.
Meanwhile, the Home Office has come under fire for repeatedly overspending on its budget for asylum seekers. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the department’s spending budget over the past three years to pay for asylum, border, and visa management was initially estimated at £320 million but in actuality spent £7.9 billion – an underestimate of £7.6 billion.
The IFS said that this underestimation has continued into this year, accusing the Home Office of presenting a budget that it “knows to be insufficient” for 2024. While the think tank acknowledged that costs have risen as a result of the tens of thousands of illegals crossing the English Channel from France and applying for asylum in Britain, it said that the crisis had been happening for several years and therefore the increase in associated costs should have been “entirely foreseeable.
The Home Office responded by saying they have been clear that the prior approach was to fund the majority of asylum system costs through the Supplementary Estimate. In future, they are seeking to include these costs in the Main Estimate as part of the ongoing Spending Review.