That includes 57,657 receiving child benefit and 30,749 getting tax credits, which could be between £1,365 a year for a single worker and £5,300 a year for a couple with children.

With handouts including jobseekers allowance, income support, pension credit and council housing, it means taxpayers are likely to pay at least £102million a year to support those let into Britain to work.

And the true numbers are likely to be more than 100,000 as Home Office statistics do not include the self-employed.

About 49,000 Eastern Euro­peans applied for employment  under the Worker Registration Scheme in the first quarter of 2007, taking the total to 630,000 since 2004. But the figure is likely to be closer to 840,000 once the self-employed are included.

And the numbers are likely to grow still further after Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU on January 1. Out of 9,305 applications for worker certificates from those countries, 7,120 were approved.

The Romanian and Bul­garian figures showed that one of the main occupations given by immigrants for work permits was “circus artiste”.

For Rom­ania it was the top occupation, with 40 applicants, and for Bulgaria it came third with 15 applicants, after senior carer and chef.

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne denied this could indicate applicants were being untruthful about their real reasons for entering Britain. Overall, at least 59,400 East­ern Europeans came to Britain in the first three months of this year – or 660 every day.

Sir Andrew said: “These figures confirm that massive levels of immigration from Eastern Europe continue un­abated.
“It is even more vital to reduce immigration from the rest of the world if our public services are to be able to cope.”

Westminster City Council’s deputy leader Colin Barrow warned that the levels could be the tip of the iceberg.

Councils are already in revolt amid warnings that official figures on immigration are massively below numbers arriving.

They fear that new methods for calculating the flow of migrants are flawed, leading to shortfalls in funding and rises in council tax.

Four councils have written to the Treasury to express concerns over “perverse” figures suggesting some towns and cities are seeing numerous  migrants leave when, in fact, the numbers are increasing.

Coun Barrow said: “These figures are of limited value as they do not take into account those people who may have come through Victoria coach station but have not registered to work. What they do show is that over a quarter of those registering to work have done so in London.

“This would seem to contradict those recent official statistics which have reduced the capital’s migrant population by 60,000 by a stroke of their pen.”

Mr Byrne said: “It remains too soon to evaluate the full impact of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU.”

But he went on to say: “Early indications are that our policy of restricting access to the UK’s labour market is helping to ensure that only those who have something to offer the UK are allowed to work here.”

Danny Sriskandarajah, of Left-wing think-tank the In­sti­tute for Public Policy Research, said: “The number of new arrivals from central and Eastern Europe has flattened out and the number of Rom­anians and Bulgarians should not be cause for alarm.”