The £20bn handout:

Housing benefit bill

soaring as recession bites

Bashir Aden relaxes in his wife's home, rented by taxpayers at £1,600 a week

A staggering £20billion will be paid in housing benefit this year as the effects of the recession push up the welfare bill.

Official figures show the handouts are expected to rise by 15 per cent - despite a pledge by ministers to crack down on excessive claims.

The predicted total of £19.6billion is nearly £3billion up on last year.

It is the steepest rise for 15 years as families are forced onto benefits as the recession bites and more people become unemployed.

The Department for Work and Pensions revealed the year-on-year rise as it emerged that one family has been given a record £279,000 of taxpayers' cash to pay their rent.

Information released under the Freedom of Information Act shows the claimants are being paid £2,875 a week for a seven-bedroom house in Brent, North-west London.

The family - which has received £208,000 since July 2008 - is one of three in the capital who have claimed more than £200,000 in housing benefit.

In November it was revealed that Somali-born Nasra Warsame and seven of her children were living in a £1.8million house in Westminster at a cost to taxpayers of £1,600 a week.

Her husband Bashir Aden and her eighth child were living in an 'overspill' property, also on housing benefit.

Another claimant, in Hackney, East London, has received £207,000 and some 550 families receive more than £30,000 annually.