Car insurance staff at provider swiftcover.com have revealed they spent nights away from home and hired 4×4 vehicles to get to work as some of the measures aimed at ensuring they were in their Kent offices to deal with "unprecedented levels of calls" during the heavy snow across the country. They say claims for car insurance soared by nearly 75 per cent in the course of the weather-induced chaos.

According to swiftcover.com's figures, 90 per cent of its car insurance claims handlers made it to the office during the cold spell, though most had to leave their cars at home and walk some or all of the way to work.

Four-wheel drive vehicles were hired to collect other workers, while a handful of car insurance experts stayed several nights at a hotel to be near the office.

Robin Reames, swiftcover.com's director of motor insurance claims, commented: "Claims during the winter months are usually 21 per cent higher than the rest of the year, and the first working week of the New Year is traditionally a peak as an extra 14.5million cars hit the rush hour as schools and many people return to work for the first time after Christmas."