UK dividends fell at the slowest rate since the coronavirus pandemic began in the first quarter of 2021, with payouts falling by 26.7% year-on-year on an underlying basis to £12.7bn.
Total cuts reached £5.8bn for the quarter, roughly half of which was attributed to the oil sector, while headline dividends jumped 7.9% owing to the second-highest one-off specials on record at £6.1bn, the latest Link Group Dividend Monitor shows. Since the 48.2% collapse in UK dividends in the second quarter of 2020, when the pandemic began, each successive quarter has seen a slower decline. In January, Link forecast that UK company dividends are unlikely to return to pre-Covid levels until 2025, after payouts almost halved in 2020. The final tally shows a 41.6% drop in payouts ov...
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