Refugees will be offered a personal buddy to teach them how to get a home and benefits.

Brighton and Hove has been selected to join the £3.6m Time Together Project, which will pair successful asylum seekers with volunteers for five hours a month.

The mentors will offer advice on how to get a home, health care, school places and the full range of benefits and help them to settle in to their new community.

They will also give instructions on how to make use of Jobcentres in an attempt to cut unemployment rates among refugee numbers that run at six times the national average.

More than 100 refugees in Brighton are likely to be helped over the three-year lifespan of the project, run by the charity TimeBank.

The scheme, announced yesterday, is a key aspect of Integration Matters, the national refugee integration strategy launched in March this year.

Immigration Minister Andy Burnham said: "Britain has a proud tradition of welcoming genuine refugees and the Government remains committed to ensuring they are able to make a full contribution to UK society.

"Refugees are people who have fled persecution and found sanctuary in Brighton. It is only right that we should help them to integrate.

"The Time Together Project will facilitate easier, quicker integration and enable individuals to achieve their potential and help refugees make a full and positive contribution to British society as swiftly as possible.

"This will benefit not only them but also the communities which they live in.

"Refugees can contribute to our society both economically and culturally through work, civic responsibility and personal attainment."

The project came on stream in Brighton, Leicester, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Southampton and London yesterday. It is already on offer in Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Peterborough, Plymouth and another in London.

In total, 24 separate schemes will be established in cities across the country.