Around £235 million ($298 million) is expected to be withdrawn from ATMs on Thursday as people fit trips to cash machines around casting their general election votes.

This is according to a forecast from UK cash access and cash machine network Link reported on Wednesday.

The network expects the total to be lower than it was on December 12, 2019, when the last general election was held.

On that date, which resulted in Boris Johnson returning to Downing Street as Conservative Prime Minister, £322 million was withdrawn. The Link said early December was a slightly busier time for cash machine withdrawals.

On June 8, 2017, the general election date, the then-prime minister Theresa May’s election gamble backfired, as the Conservatives’ Commons majority was erased.

Some £356 million was taken out of ATMs.

According to Link’s figures, £240 million was dispensed from ATMs on Thursday last week (June 27).

The data applied only to Link transactions, which occur when a bank customer uses an ATM belonging to another provider.

The vast majority of ATMs across the UK were connected to the Link network.

Link said that cash machine transactions tended to increase earlier in the summer as people got out and about.

However, the network often saw a dip in ATM transactions in August, as many UK residents went abroad on holidays.

Graham Mott, director of strategy at Link, said, “Polling day traditionally itself doesn’t seem to make a huge difference to ATM use when compared to a normal Thursday at that time of year; people seem to fit voting around their normal routine.

“Early December is normally slightly busier than either early June or July but the vast majority of the fall in ATM use is due to people now doing less cash overall.

“They are increasingly using cards and their phones to make day-to-day payments transactions.”

Legislation to protect access to cash was passed in 2023 as part of the Financial Services and Markets Act.

A recent survey for Link indicated that nearly half, 48 per cent, of people expected to see a cashless society in their lifetime. But according to Link’s data, the average UK adult still withdrew around 1,500 pounds from cash machines last year.

In June, banknotes bearing King Charles III’s portrait started to be issued.

This marked the first time that the sovereign was changed on the Bank of England’s notes, as the late queen was the first British monarch to be depicted on a note in 1960.

The new banknotes are co-circulating alongside those featuring the late queen. More than £4.6 billion Bank of England notes are in circulation, worth around £82 billion.

Mr Mott said that 99.8 per cent of UK high streets had free cash access within one kilometre.

“Link will also make sure this is still the case by the time of the next general election, whenever that is,” 

(dpa/NAN)