As of today, benefit support for asylum seekers will be cut to £5 a day. This is just over half of what the government says a person needs to live on.

The weekly rate for a single asylum seeker over the age of 25 who is destitute and asks for support will be just £35.13 a week, down from £42.16.

Asylum seekers who are lone parents with one child will have their benefits frozen at £42.16, instead of rising in line with inflation. This will leave them £2 worse off everyt week.

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) said that asylum support rates were reviewed "in view of the difficult economic climate".

A spokesman defended the decision, saying that asylum seekers often live in UKBA accommodation and therefore do not have housing costs or bills.

But refugee charities - including the Refugee Council in England, Scotland and Wales, and Refugee Action - said they were appalled by the decision, and said that a more practical solution would be to allow asylum seekers to work.

Donna Covey, of the Asylum Support Partnership, representing the agencies, said: These are hard times for everybody, but we must remember that many of these people have experienced torture, persecution, war and human rights abuses and most live in already impoverished circumstances.''