A big majority of Jamaicans, 72%, say they didn’t benefit from any of the government’s Covid-19 relief programmes over the last two and a half years.
This means only 28% received a benefit.
Women and JLP supporters were more likely than others to say they benefitted from the relief programmes.
That’s according to the NNN/Bluedot polls conducted between August 12 and 25 in all 63 constituencies across the island.
Wayne Walker reports.
While a whopping 72% of Jamaicans say they didn’t benefit from the hundreds of millions of dollars in Covid-19 relief programmes, women benefited much more than men. 32% of women said they received a benefit from the programmes, only 19% of men did.
That’s a difference of 13%.
According to Bluedot, supporters of the JLP were more likely to benefit than PNP supporters. 36% of JLP supporters say they benefited compared to 26% of PNP adherents.
Overall, only 28% of Jamaicans say they benefitted from the COVID-19 relief programmes.
Broken down by gender, 36% of those who received a benefit were men versus 64% who were women. According to Bluedot, this is no surprise as women were more likely to be vulnerable than men during the pandemic. They were more likely to have lost their main sources of income due to their roles as caretakers for children during the online learning phase of the pandemic.
The poll also found that nearly half, or 47% combined, of the Jamaicans who benefited from the COVID-19 relief programmes were under 35 years of age.
Working class and middle class Jamaicans were just as likely to be among the beneficiaries of the Covid relief programmes. A combined 42% of each. 16% of beneficiaries came from the non-working class. 6 in 10 of those Jamaicans who received benefits came from either the working class or non working class.
The pollsters interviewed 1275 Jamaicans. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.
