One in three Dutch firms asked for financial help to deal with the impact of coronavirus in the two years of special measures, national statistics agency CBS said on Friday.

In particular, companies with a workforce of between 10 and 50 people were likely to ask for assistance, the CBS said.

Between March 2020 and June 2022, 35% of firms claimed at least one of the four support measures available – the most popular of which was the freelancer payment known as Tozo.

Firms with small workforces were most likely to ask for help to meet wage bills and to defer tax payments while companies with more than 250 employees were most likely to ask to pay their tax bills later.

By the end of June 2022, the total subsidy package had cost the government €34 billion, of which €24 billion went on wage support and €3.5 billion on helping the self-employed make ends meet.

In addition, companies owed almost €21 billion in tax via the deferred payment scheme. That must now be paid back within seven years.