Research from Hitachi Capital UK has found that late payments are costing SMEs an estimated £51.5bn (€56.7bn).
A survey of 1,000 SME owners found that almost a third of SMEs (31%) have experienced late payments costing their business at least £10,000 in the last 12 months.
The impact of late payments on the long-term health of the UK economy was projected from this survey to have cost UK SMEs at least £51.5bn in the last year.
Over a quarter of SMEs (27%) have experienced a profit squeeze because of late payments, and 12% have had to defer staff pay, according to Hitachi equating to an estimated 1.95m UK employees that have been left empty-handed on payday.
