You asked
Please provide:
- The request is for full details by monthly time rests and number of instances of the following:
the ONS state that they
"have had many situations where a payment has been made where an appointment was cancelled at short notice, or marked as did not attend by IQVIA" or any other party acting for or on behalf of the ONS.
How much of this alleged overpayments have been recovered.
What actions have been taken to recover the alleged overpayments.
How many payments have been made after 20 days from the date of the sample being taken.
What is the range of times taken to resolve a complaint, how many complaints have been received and what is average duration taken to resolve a complaint for the 10% of longest duration complaints.
We said
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request regarding the payment of vouchers to participants of our COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS).
Q1 and Q2)
The way our data is stored regarding this topic means that we do not hold historic records of the information you have requested. We hold cumulative data for all participants and voucher payments, including overpayments. This data is also not recorded by month. Therefore, we would be unable to determine the specific details of the information you have requested from the information we hold.
However, we are able to advise the number of participants currently in overpayment.
5847 participants are currently in overpayment, totalling £228,297. This figure is the total since the start of the study, and before the incentives team was established. We now have process in place to stop overpayments and are in the process of recovering all overpayments.
We now advise the following to participants on the email sent with voucher codes: "Where an overpayment occurs a voucher will not be issued on subsequent visits until the overpayment balance is used".
Q3)
With regards to the action taken to recover/account for overpayments made to CIS participants, participant voucher records are now balanced weekly and vouchers are then not generated if an over-payment has occurred. All overpayments are recovered providing the participants remain in the study.
Q4)
We also do not hold the number of vouchers that have been paid within 20 days or have exceeded this. However, we have introduced new processes and that the majority of our vouchers are sent within our 20 working day timeline.
Q5)
We do not have a central logging system for initial CIS-related complaints. These are handled alongside regular queries and managed through the CIS shared mailboxes. Therefore, we would be unable to determine how many queries, specifically categorised as complaints rather than queries, the CIS team has received regarding vouchers.
We are able to report on the number of escalations received by the Complaints Management team regarding CIS vouchers. This occurs when someone who has submitted a complaint/query to the business area is dissatisfied with the response they have received.
The Complaints Management team have handled 1 escalated complaint regarding this. This was answered within 15 working days.
For context, we have no official time frame for complaint escalations to be completed, as these can vary in length depending on the complexity of the issue and the amount of correspondence that needs to be reviewed. However, we do ensure that we apologise when our response times exceed 20 working days.