76% of us don’t make pay-day

WAGESTREAM APP LAUNCHED TO HELP AVOID HIGH INTEREST LOANS FOR UNDER STRAIN EMPLOYEES

ONE in five Irish workers have used or thought about using a payday loan company to bridge a financial gap as they await their salary payment, particularly at this time of the year.

And more than three quarters of employees claim they feel financial strain before their paycheques arrive and almost 20% of workers say they need to borrow money before the end of the month with some frequency.

These figures was brought to light in research commissioned by Wagestream, Ireland’s first income streaming app to allow employees access a percentage of their own, earned wages before payday.

Other startling facts revealed by the research include:

Almost half - 48% - of workers claim that financial strain has resulted in them having to cancel activities with family and/or friends.

44% of workers claim that financial strain has resulted in stress and pressure at home.

26% of workers aged between 18-24 are signficantly more likely to have used a payday loan to bridge a gap - this is 20% more than workers in other age groups.

Gender division features in the results with figures showing women are more affected by financial strain at home and often have to cancel activities where men’s financial strain impacts performance and attendance at work.

Overall, 71% males vs 84% females feel financial strain before payday.

The survey asked where people access additional money to tide them over and just over half (55%) approached family and friends, while a third (33%) claim that they borrow money through their credit card. 17% claimed that they use their overdraft facility and 17% went to their local credit union.

Almost 2 in 5 (39%) workers claim that they have had to borrow money to pay for an unexpected event like a car breakdown, a new dishwasher and more major purchases.

The Wagestream app allows employees to avoid borrowing money or taking out high interest loans by giving them flexible access to their wages as they earn them at a flat fee of €1.75 per transaction. Wagestream is set to a maximum of 50% of already earned wages at the time of the transaction.

In addition to streaming wages, the Wagestream platform allows employees to track their spending, access financial education, and save directly from their salary.

The financial wellness education on the platform will be provided in Ireland by the Money Advice & Budgeting Service (MABS) and will be tailored to the employee.

Wagestream commissioned Empathy Research to conduct this nationwide survey to reveal the payday fear facing working adults in Ireland.