Redundancy payments for thousands of former staff at failed electrical chain Comet will initially cost the government £23.2m, administrators Deloitte have revealed.
The money will be paid from the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS).
However, Deloitte said that it expected the RPS would ultimately be repaid in full from assets released from Comet.
The last 49 Comet stores will close on Tuesday. Comet went into administration last month.
Big lossesComet's demise is one of the biggest High Street casualties of recent years.
The 236-store business was bought last year for the nominal sum of £1 by private equity firm OpCapita.
OpCapita bought the Comet from Kesa Electrical, which also gave OpCapita £46.8m of working capital.
However, OpCapita failed to turnaround Comet's fortunes, as the company continued to suffer from the fall in UK consumer spending during the recession, and the big growth in online rivals.
Comet was founded in Hull in 1933 and began life selling batteries and radios.
The closure of the final Comet's stores comes after Deloitte failed to find a buyer for the company.
Deloitte also revealed on Monday that Comet's losses in the year to April totalled £95m, while its revenues slumped by £200m.
In the subsequent five months, Comet lost a further £31m.
Kesa Electricals was renamed Darty in July this year.
Despite having its headquarters in London, it focuses on the continental market - especially France, where it has more than 200 stores under the Darty name.
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