If you identify with the term “Just About Managing”, or “JAM”, when it comes to your monthly finances, you might be interested in the following research, from a payday lender’s survey of some of its customers[1]. It found that:
1 – JAMs are politically engaged:
- 69% voted in the last election (compared to 66% nationally) [2]
- 72% voted in the EU referendum (which is the same as nationally) [3]
- 76% intend to vote in the upcoming election.
2 – This election is mainly about the NHS:
- 33 per cent said the NHS was the most important issue to them. That’s the same percentage as the next two issues combined!
- The economy was the next most important at 20 per cent
- Immigration came third with 12 per cent
- The lowest result on the list was pensions, which received just 2 per cent of the votes.
3 – There’s a preference for Labour, but it could change:
- Labour’s in first place at 35 per cent, up 3 per cent from how JAMs said they voted in the last election
- Conservatives are second with 21 per cent, down 3 per cent from 2015
- UKIP have lost two thirds of their support, from 10 per cent in 2015 to 3 per cent in 2017
- ‘Undecideds’ and ‘Prefer not to say’ are both at 16 per cent.
[1] Survey of 802 people who had taken out a loan with Lending Stream in the last six months. When shown the definition ‘just about managing but you worry about the cost of living and getting your kids into a good school‘ and asked them if they would describe themselves this way, 503 responded with ‘definitely yes’ or ‘probably yes’.
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015/results
[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum/results
