STATE CASH RETURNED

ASOS has promised to hand back money claimed under the furlough scheme – and will not accept a bonus for bringing staff back to work.

At the start of the lockdown, the fast fashion giant sent around 1,000 staff home via the taxpayer-funded Job Retention Scheme that covered 80pc of the wages of furloughed workers.

But it has now said it will hand back the £1.8m it was paid while staff were furloughed in April.

And it also became the latest firm to say it will not take advantage of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s £1,000 per employee bonus scheme for bringing staff back from furlough.

This would have handed it a further £1m. Cash-rich firms have been urged to hand furlough money back.