Migrants to Birmingham from overseas are far less likely to claim benefits than those born in the area.

New figures from the Department for Work and Pensions have revealed the number of people with non-UK birthplaces who claim working age benefits across the country as of February 2016.

In Birmingham, 18,664 non-UK born people were claiming these benefits, which include Jobseeker’s Allowance. This equates to 15.7 per cent of all the working age benefit claimants in the city according to the DWP.

Separate figures, also released this week, show that as many as 21.7 per cent of Birmingham’s population is made up of people who weren’t born in the UK.

That suggests the proportion of immigrants claiming benefits in the city is far lower than the non-immigrant population.

This pattern was repeated across the whole of the West Midlands with the biggest gap being in Solihull where 2.8 per cent of benefits claimants were born overseas compared to 9.6 per cent of the population.

Across the whole of England the DWP said that 333,134 non-UK born people were claiming working age benefits as of February.

That is about 8.5 per cent of the total number of people claiming these benefits.

In total, people born overseas constitute as much as 14.7 per cent of the UK’s population - making it far less likely that a migrant will claim benefits than someone born here.

The findings were so stark that only five of the 369 local authority areas for which there were figures showed a larger proportion of migrants claiming benefits than migrants in the population. In each of these five cases the margin was half a percentage point or less.

Birmingham's overseas benefit claimants

15.7%

Number of benefit claimants born overseas

21.7%

Number of population born overseas

Sandwell's overseas benefit claimants

10.5%

Number of benefit claimants born overseas

16.5%

Number of population born overseas

Dudley's overseas benefit claimants

4.5%

Number of benefit claimants born overseas

6%

Number of population born overseas

Solihull's overseas benefit claimants

2.8%

Number of benefit claimants born overseas

9.6%

Number of population born overseas

Walsall's overseas benefit claimants

6.5%

Number of benefit claimants born overseas

11.7%

Number of population born overseas

Wolverhampton's overseas benefit claimants

9.2%

Number of benefit claimants born overseas

18.7%

Number of benefit claimants born overseas