THOUSANDS of refugees will be plunged further into poverty today as the Tories impose a brutal cut to support for people seeking asylum in Britain. 

Families will be left worse off with the introduction of a flat-rate payment which will bring the help for children under 16 from £52.96 to under £37 a week. 

Three of Britain’s biggest charities — the Red Cross, Refugee Action and the Refugee Council — will today publicly condemn the government for its approach to the ongoing refugee crisis.

Their criticism less than a day after Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond warned of migrants undermining the European “standard of living and social structure.”

The new asylum-seekers’ support will see a single parent and their child live off less than £74 a week in cash.

According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2013 an average British household spent almost seven times more a week. Refugee Action chief executive Stephen Hale told the Star: “We are deeply concerned that the children of families seeking asylum are being targeted in this way.

“Coupled with recent government proposals to exclude some families from claiming support altogether, these cuts will increase poverty and suffering among some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”

The cut was also condemned as “immoral and dangerous” by Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael MP.

He said: “Many of these people have fled war and suffering, but are doctors, professors and skilled professionals. 

“These are people who want to contribute, but can’t because the law requires they rely on the state instead.”

According to the Refugee Council up to 74 per cent of all asylum-seekers are refused residency in Britain. While numbers have grown since 2008, applications for asylum in 2014 were below 25,000, with those fleeing from conflicts in Afghanistan, Syrian and Eritrea among the highest number of applicants. 

But speaking during a state visit to Singapore yesterday, Mr Hammond claimed “millions” of people were heading for Britain.

He said: “We have got to be able to resolve this problem ultimately by being able to return those who are not entitled to claim asylum back to their countries of origin. That’s our number one priority.

“As long as the European Union’s laws are the way they are, many of them will only have to set foot in Europe to be pretty confident that they will never be returned to their country of origin.

He added that more than enhancing the “physical security” of the Channel tunnel was necessary to address the problem.

The government’s approach, however, seems to go against popular sentiment, as news of local communities and individuals organizing aid convoys mushroomed in the last few weeks.

London couple Mona Dohle and Syed Bokhari have so far raised over £5,000 for their trip to Calais this weekend, when they hope to deliver a generator to a school for refugee children as well as food, clothes and medicine.