Home Office won’t reveal how many migrant families are taking £40k payment in the UK | news
(Stock Image) Unsuccessful asylum seekers are being offered £40K to leave the UK (Image: Getty)
The Home Office has refused to reveal the number of unsuccessful asylum seeker families who have been deported from Britain and paid £40,000 of taxpayers’ cash to leave them. The staggering sum, which is more than the average UK annual salary, has been offered as yet another bizarre plan by the Home Office, led by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood,grant crisis.
Unveiled last Thursday, the new policy gives £10,000 per person from a family of four if they agree to leave the UK. Reports indicate that at least 150 families have received notification of their eligibility to apply for the cash. On this basis alone, if four members in each of those families were awarded £10K, the total would bring the initial outlay of taxpayer cash to £6 million, enough to employ around 150 NHS nurses for a year.
The last date for failed asylum families to apply for the hefty sum is midnight today (Wednesday). Those who do not apply will lose the opportunity to make a claim.
A Home Office spokesperson declined to say how many families had accepted the handouts by 6pm today, with just hours left until the deadline, Mail Online reports.
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Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is overseeing a cash-to-leave scheme for asylum seekers (Image: Getty)
Home Office minister Alex Norris said earlier this month that it costs on average about £158,000 a year to support families seeking unsuccessful asylum. Their boss, Ms Mahmoud, has approved large payouts to families asked to leave because the government argues it will save money in the long run.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philip criticised “enhanced incentive payments” of up to £10,000 per person and £40,000 per family for leaving the UK under a pilot scheme.
Mr Philip said, “The government is now bribing illegal immigrants to leave with £40,000 per family. That’s more than most working people here earn in a year.
“British workers should not have to pay record-high taxes to this government to give their money to illegal immigrants. Such behaviour is frankly outrageous.
“Instead, the government should now agree to our plan to leave the ECHR (European Convention of Human Rights), which will enable them to rapidly deport all illegal immigrants.
“Then the crossings would be closed immediately, and there would be no need to bribe illegal immigrants to leave.”
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Migrants whose asylum applications are rejected could be paid £40K by British taxpayer (Image: Getty)
Reform’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yousaf said, “Incredibly, Labour is increasing the incentive for illegals to leave voluntarily by offering them a grand package of £40,000.
“It’s more than the average salary in Britain. The government is rewarding those who illegally enter the country. It’s outrageous.”
Reform had previously said that illegal immigrants would be offered “financial incentives to self-deport” during a six-month period if the government was in power. The Home Secretary unveiled the plan as she argued in a speech at the centre-left think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) that Labour should not be tempted to be “greener” or “more reformist” on its migration policy.
a Home Office spokesman said,
Hitting back at suggestions that the scheme would attract more migrants to Britain, a Home Office spokesman said, “This proposal is not an attraction factor. Illegal migrants pay smugglers thousands of pounds to get to Britain.”
“If those families refuse the time-limited payment offer, we will forcibly remove them.”
The Home Office estimates the proposal could save taxpayers £20 million.
A source said: “Our intelligence shows that smugglers charge between £15,000 and £35,000 per illegal migrant. As a result, the pilot who was paid to drop them off cannot act as a pull factor, since it costs more to get here in the first place. If they do not take up this offer, the family will be forcibly removed.”
Since March 4, Home Office figures show that almost a thousand migrants have crossed the Channel illegally to reach the UK aboard 15 small boats.
