A 15% cut in share dividends has been noted for the past year, as the figures reveal that £57bn was paid out by companies, which is £10 billion less than the figure posted for 2008. Shareholders are the worse affected as receiving and reinvesting dividends is by far their biggest source of return in the long term.

Capita found that a total of 202 listed firms cut their dividends in 2009. 179 companies increased payouts, while 60 held dividends at the same rate. Some £73bn was paid out by shareholders for new equity - £16bn more than was received in dividends.

Banks which are estimated to have been hit badly slashed their dividends by half, paying out £6.1bn less in 2009 than in 2008.

State-owned RBS and Lloyds paid nothing, while HSBC cut modestly and Standard Chartered actually returned more cash.

The best payers for dividends in 2009 were BP, Shell, HSBC, mobile phone group Vodafone and drugs company GlaxoSmithKline, whereas big boys, BP and Shell will have to struggle to grow dividends in 2010.

Payouts may be held back due to the heavy reliance on oil stocks tighter margin pressures and unfavorable currency movements.

Investing experts suggest that big income payers, such as oil and drug companies will try and avoid cutting payouts, as this would substantially decrease their stock's attractiveness to investors.