Government help needed as child refugees are costing councils millions as services are cut

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Local authorities are paying out as much as £31,500 per child - mounting up to a staggering spend of £36.9million for just ten councils.

Last year, 1,168 unaccompanied child asylum seekers were supported by councils who were forced to meet the costs of keeping them in Britain.

Over the last decade the same ten councils have spent almost £200m, with that figure likely to soar, a Sun investigation found.

Grants are available to the councils from the Home Office, but the funding gap must be plugged by them.

The three councils with the highest rate of recipients are Kent County Council, Croydon and Hillingdon in West London.