More than 80,000 employers hand back furlough grants worth £215m

British employers have voluntarily returned more than £215 million to the UK Government in furlough payments they decided they did not want or need.

According to figures from H MR eve nu ea nd Customs (HMRC), so far 80,433 employers have returned money that they were given to cover the salaries of their workers.

The companies an do ther bodies have returned £215,756,121 as of 15 Septemb er, according to data obtained by the PA news agency through a freedom of information request.

Some of the money was returned, while other companies simply claimed smaller payouts the next time they were given furlough cash.

It is a tiny par t of the overall £35.4 billion that has been claimed as par t of the coro - na virus job retention scheme(CJRS ), according to the latest statistics from 16 August. It is also only a fraction of the up to £3.5bn that officials believe may have been paid out in error or to fraudsters.

H MR C said :“We welcomes those employers who have voluntarily returned CJRS grants to HMRC because they no longer need the grant, or have realised they’ve made errors and followed our guidance on putting things right.”

The programme was set up in April this year in a bid to help support businesses which could not operate, or had to reduce staff levels, during lockdown.

Employees who stayed at home were paid 80 per cent of their salary, with the UK Government sending the money to businesses. However, some firms that initially submitted a furlough claim later decided they did not need the money.

Housebuilders Redrow, Barratt and Taylor Wimpey have both said they returned all the furlough money they had claimed. They were joined by Bunzl, Ikea and many others.

Meanwhile retailer Primark has said it will refuse the £30m it could have claimed for bringing back staff under the Jobs Retention Bonus.

“HMRC welcomes those employers who have voluntarily returned CJRS grants to HMRC because they no longer need it or made errors” HMRC SPOKESPERSON