Almost 40,000 companies which received help in paying staff wages at the height of the coronavirus pandemic have been told to repay at least some of the cash, benefits agency UWV has confirmed.

In total, the agency expects refunds of €1.4 billion and says seven in 10 companies that benefited from the scheme between June and September 2020 must pay money back. Four in 10 of them will have to refund the entire amount.

The aim of the measure was to prevent mass redundancies and the money was to cover wages at companies where sales at plummeted because of the coronavirus restrictions.

At the same time, a number of other companies will be given top-up funding totalling €302 million the UWV said.

Payments were based on estimates and the actual amounts are now being calculated by the UWV, based on official company results. In most cases, the refunds are due because companies did not lose more than 20% of their turnover during the period.