BOMBSHELL REPORT: Mass immigration is costing Britain £17BILLION each year

MASS immigration is costing British taxpayers £17billion a year, a bombshell report warned last night.

But it said the UK could save £1.2billion by quitting the EU. 

A detailed study of the costs of migration to Britain set against its benefits showed an overwhelmingly negative impact on the Treasury. 

The burden of public services, benefits and pensions for migrants and their families far outstrips the income from what they pay in taxes. 

Migrants contributed £89.7billion in taxes but received £106.7billion in public spending during 2014-15, the report shows. 

The cost to taxpayers included a staggering £20billion paid in working-age benefits. 

The crippling £17billion annual shortfall – equivalent to nearly £63 for every UK household – was estimated in a report published by population think tank Migration Watch UK. 

Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of the think tank, said: “This report shows EU migration is not making the positive fiscal contribution that has so often been claimed. 

“Furthermore, it is adding to the rapidly increasing pressures on housing and public services. 

“It also contributes a population increase of half a million every year – roughly a city the size of Liverpool.” 

The estimate of £89.7billion contributed by migrants included £42.3billion in income tax and national insurance, £28.5billion in VAT and other indirect taxes and £18.9billion in business rates and other related levies. 

The figure of £106.7billion public spending on migrants in the same year included £8.8billion in state pension, £18.6billion for NHS treatment and £18billion on education. 

The only way to control migration and save money is by voting to leave the EU
Steven Woolfe
Migrant families benefited from £39.9billion spent on policing, roads and other public services and infrastructure. 

They also received £21.4billion in working-age welfare payments, including jobless benefits, housing benefit and tax credits. 

Non-European migrants were the greatest burden on the taxpayer, according to the report.