Publication of Northern Ireland High Street Scheme Survey – Findings from the NISRA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Opinion Survey

Date published: 13 April 2022

The Department for the Economy today published a statistical report and accompanying data tables presenting key findings on the Northern Ireland High Street Scheme from questions asked in the NISRA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Opinion Survey.

Findings from the NISRA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Opinion Survey
Findings from the NISRA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Opinion Survey

The statistics presented in this report cover two time periods; 2 August to 26 September 2021 prior to the launch of the Scheme on 27 September 2021, and 27 September to 27 November 2021 following the launch of the Scheme. The report provides a summary of responses to questions regarding the Scheme, and where the number of respondents is large enough, differences by age band, limiting longstanding illness, sex and employment status are discussed.

Key points

During 2 August to 26 September 2021, prior to the launch of the Scheme:

  • The majority (97 per cent) of respondents said they intend to apply for a prepaid £100 card when the High Street Scheme is launched, whilst only 3 per cent said they did not.
  • Of those who said they intend to apply for a prepaid £100 card, nine tenths (90 per cent) said they intend to apply online, whilst a tenth (10 per cent) said by telephone.
  • Of those who said they intend to apply for a prepaid £100 card, the majority (87 per cent) said ‘I will apply myself’, a tenth (10 per cent) said ‘I will ask someone to apply on my behalf’ whilst 4 per cent said ‘I will apply myself with assistance’.
  • Of those who said they intend to apply for a prepaid £100 card, just over three fifths (61 per cent) said they intend to spend all or most of the £100 in small local businesses. Under a third (29 per cent) said they intend to spend some in small local businesses and some in large multinational companies, whilst a tenth (10 per cent) said they intend to spend all or most of it in large multinational companies.

During 27 September to 27 November 2021, after the launch of the Scheme:

  • The majority (85 per cent) of respondents said ’I have already applied via the online portal’, a seventh (14 per cent) said ’Not yet – however I intend to apply’, whilst 1 per cent said ‘No – I do not intend to apply’ for a prepaid £100 card.
  • Of those who said they had already applied via the online portal, over four fifths (82 per cent) said ‘I applied myself’, under a sixth (15 per cent) said ‘Someone applied on my behalf’ and 3 per cent said ‘I applied myself with assistance’.
  • Of those who said they had already applied via the online portal themselves or with assistance, the majority (95 per cent) said they found the application process very easy/ easy, whilst only 5 per cent said they found it difficult/ very difficult.
  • Of those who said they had already applied via the online portal or they intend to apply, two thirds (67 per cent) said they intend to spend or have spent all or most of the £100 in small local businesses. Over a fifth (22 per cent) said they intend to spend or have spent some in small local businesses and some in large multinational companies, whilst just over a tenth (11 per cent) said they intend to spend or have spent all or most of it in large multinational companies.
  • Of those who said they had already applied via the online portal or they intend to apply, over two fifths (44 per cent) said they intend to spend or have spent all of the £100 on something(s) they would have bought anyway whilst over a fifth (22 per cent) said they intend to spend or have spent none of the £100 on something(s) they would have bought anyway.
  • Of those who said they intend to spend or have spent all or most of their £100 on something(s) they would have bought anyway, the majority (70 per cent) said this has “freed up” money in their budget, whilst 30 per cent said it has not.
  • Of those who said they have “freed up” money in their budget, over a third (36 per cent) said they intend to spend or have spent it on something(s) they would not have bought in the absence of the Scheme, over a quarter (27 per cent) said on paying bills or reducing debt, over a fifth (23 per cent) said on something else whilst 15 per cent said to increase their savings.
  • Of those who said they have “freed up” money in their budget, under three quarters (71 per cent) said they intend to spend or have spent most or all of it in small local businesses, whilst similar proportions said they intend to spend or have spent some of it in small local businesses or elsewhere including online (both 15 per cent).

This full statistical report and related information is available to download on the DfE website.

Notes to editors: 

1. The statistics presented in this report are based on data gathered from the NISRA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Opinion Survey.

2. The NISRA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Opinion Survey has been conducted by the Central Survey Unit (CSU) of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) since April 2020 to measure how the pandemic has been affecting peoples’ lives and behaviours in Northern Ireland.

3. The Department for the Economy commissioned questions in the NISRA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Opinion Survey relating to the NI High Street Scheme. A series of questions were asked from 2 August to 26 September 2021, prior to the launch of the Scheme on 27 September 2021. Further questions were asked from 27 September to 27 November 2021 following the launch of the Scheme.

4. The results in this report are based on data which has been weighted. Before analysis, the data are weighted in relation to the number of eligible adults at the address, derived from the details of the household structure recorded by interviewers on the questionnaire. This is a known as a design weight and this weighting process adjusts the results to those which would have been achieved if the sample had been drawn as a systematic random sample of adults rather than of addresses. Further weighting was applied to the data to adjust for differences in the composition of the achieved sample (after the design weight was applied) compared to the same characteristics in the population, known as non-response weights. The non-response weights were applied sequentially to calibrate the characteristics of the achieved sample to the population distribution in terms of sex and age. Once the data was weighted by both the design weight and the non-response weights, the achieved sample became more representative of the population the survey aimed to reflect.

5. Further notes and details are available in the report on the Department’s website.

6. To keep up to date with news from the Department you can follow us on the following social media channels:

7. For media enquiries contact the Department for the Economy Press Office at pressoffice@economy-ni.gov.uk .

8. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

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