SUELLA BRAVERMAN has been ordered by a court to immediately increase financial support to asylum-seekers after the sum was ruled unlawful.

Asylum-seekers will now receive a weekly allowance of £45, up from £40.85 — an increase of 10.1 per cent. 

The High Court ruled earlier this month that the Home Secretary had acted unlawfully by failing in her legal duty to provide for the basic needs of asylum-seekers. 

The case was brought by a Nigerian mother, who has three children and fled domestic violence. 

Her lawyers argued that she was entitled to the higher payments, and that Ms Braverman was acting unlawfully by failing to increase the support to the legal level required to avoid destitution. 

In a judgement handed down on December 15, the High Court in Manchester ruled that the Home Secretary is legally required to immediately increase the rate of weekly support. 

But in response to a lack of action by Ms Braverman in the following weeks, the High Court issued a rare order this week demanding the Home Office increase the allowance by 10.1 per cent. 

Kathleen Cosgrove of Greater Manchester Law Centre, who acted for the claimant, said: “The case has shown that the Home Secretary has, knowingly, and for months, broken the laws set by her own Parliament and left 60,000 adults and children, residing lawfully in this country and who she has accepted a duty to support, with less than they need to meet essential living needs.”

A Home Office spokeswoman said the welfare of asylum-seekers remains of the “utmost importance.”

Support groups for asylum-seekers have been told they will receive backdated December pay in January, according to the BBC.