Asylum seekers overpaid by £10m

A Home Office audit found officials mistakenly handed out 9.6m in housing benefit and living allowances.

Overpayments happened when payouts continued even after asylum cases were concluded. The real total could be even higher because officials at the UK Border Agency have not calculated the cost of errors made in previous years.

Officials have been forced to write off the money because of "legal obstacles" to recovering it, according to the Home Office report.

Critics condemned the waste of taxpayers' money and called on ministers to "get a grip" on the problem.