Six companies are offering employee rewards of up to £2,000, including a major high street bank

To ease the strain of rising bills and the cost of living, some companies have announced one-time bonuses for their employees to help them pay their rising bills

Businesses across the UK are offering one-off bonuses to their employees to help them weather the cost of living crisis.

Inflation is 9%, a 40-year high and is expected to reach 11% later this year.

Families are hit by soaring energy bills, record high fuel prices and soaring grocery stores.

To ease the strain, some companies have announced one-time bonuses for their employees to help them pay their mounting bills.

Airlines have also introduced start-up bonuses for workers as holidaymakers have been hit by travel chaos and cancellations.

The airline industry blames the huge disruption on staff shortages after thousands of workers were laid off during Covid and a huge surge in bookings after restrictions were lifted.

Rolls-Royce – Bonus of £2,000

Rolls-Royce is paying 14,000 UK workers a one-off cash payment of £2,000, with the money being spent from August.

The luxury automaker will distribute the bonus and a retrospective 4% pay increase to 11,000 workers at the workshop back to March.

Rolls-Royce also intends to award a lump sum of £2,000 to a further 3,000 young professionals.

Derby and Bristol staff will make up the bulk of the recipients of the extra money.

A total of 20,000 people work for the engine manufacturer in Great Britain.

Lloyds Bank – £1,000 bonus

Lloyds Bank will give more than 64,000 workers a one-off payment of £1,000 to help pay for living expenses.

The payment, due in August, will be paid to 99.5% of the workforce, but not to senior management or senior management.

In the memo to its staff, Lloyds said: “As the rising cost of living continues to impact our staff and our customers, we have assessed the evolving inflation outlook and considered how we can support you even further.

“With that in mind, I wanted to let you know that we will be making a one-off payment of £1,000 to all our people in grades A – G, to be paid in your August salary.”

University of Oxford – Bonus of £1,000

Oxford University is giving all full-time staff a one-time bonus of £1,000 to say thank you for their hard work during the pandemic.

The bonus is paid out in July for employees who were in office on April 30. The university currently employs around 13,000 people.

Vice Chancellor Louise Richardson said: “We are acutely aware of the impact of rising inflation and pension changes and we know that this payment will not fully alleviate the challenges of the national economic climate.

“Nevertheless, we would like to take this opportunity to simply say ‘thank you’ to our wonderful staff who make this institution what it is today.”

Bloomsbury – 6% bonus

Harry Potter publishers Bloomsbury will pay all of its employees a bonus of 6% on salary.

The group will pay out to all of its 1,000 employees worldwide, 700 of whom are based in the UK.

Chief Executive Nigel Newton said: “We had the best financial year in Bloomsbury’s 35-year history.

“Over the last two years everyone has had to dig deeper, work harder and keep working together as we have gone through various stages of the online lockdown and returned to the office.

“We are now in uncharted territory in a livelihood crisis, so our ability to pay this bonus in full is particularly important.”

easyJet – £1,000 bonus

easyJet confirmed last month that it would be offering a £1,000 bonus to both new and existing cabin crew.

The money is to be paid out at the end of the summer season as part of staff retention plans.

At the time of its announcement, easyJet said it had hired 1,700 crew members, up from its original target of 1,500.

The low-cost airline said yesterday it will operate 13% fewer flights due to staff shortages and restrictions on the number of planes that can take off from major airports such as Gatwick.

British Airways – Bonus of £1,000

British Airways is offering a ‘golden hello’ of £1,000 to new cabin crew as part of plans to hire more staff.

The company says it will pay new employees £500 after three months and the rest after six months – if they can start before July.

BA had cut around 10,000 jobs due to travel industry restrictions.