Record numbers of migrants living in Britain and not working are costing the taxpayer an estimated £8 billion a year, a new report warns.

Official figures show 1,689,000 non-UK nationals are either unemployed or classed as economically inactive because they are not looking for a job.

The figure for the second quarter of 2024 surpasses the previous high of 1,676,000 recorded at the start of the year, according to analysis of Office for National Statistics data.

The Centre for Migration Control put the cost to taxpayers at £8.5 billion a year.

The think tank’s research director Robert Bates told the Daily Mail: “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.

“There is no reason for us to continue handing out so many long-term visas when we are currently having to bail out over a million migrants who are already in Britain but not working.

“This is the very definition of a Ponzi scheme, and we will only compound the problem if we do not change course soon.

“Our elderly are facing a potentially deadly winter as Keir Starmer cancels the lifeline of the winter fuel allowance, but at the same time he is doing nothing to clamp down on workless migrants.”

The analysis covers people aged between 16 and 64 who were born overseas and have the right to live in the UK, but excludes students and asylum seekers.

Tory MP Neil O’Brien said the report shows that “migration policy is literally not working”.

He added: “We need a system where the numbers coming are capped at a much lower level and the system is much more selective.

“No one has a problem with a small number of highly skilled workers coming here but that is not what our current migration rules are delivering and sadly there is no sign of that changing under Keir Starmer.”

It comes after the UK saw a 35% drop in visa applications in the first half of this year are measures introduced by the Tories to crack down on legal migration.

A Government spokesman said: “It is incorrect to apply an average cost to migrants out of work as estimates need to take into account individual circumstances.

“Most education and welfare costs are not applicable to working-age migrants who are not students.”