You asked
Under the freedom of information act please tell me:
(a) How many complaints have been made in relation to non-payment of vouchers in respect of this particular survey?
(b) How many participants have taken legal action to recover vouchers or compensation for vouchers not issued.
We said
Thank you for your request. Please see the following answers to your questions.
(a) The ONS COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS) was set up to measure the prevalence and incidence of COVID-19 in the population, including among those who didn't realise that they had it at the time. It is of critical importance, directly feeding into Government policy. The programme is an exciting collaboration between the ONS, Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) plus academics from Oxford and Manchester Universities, Public Health England, and a broad range of other external stakeholders.
Our funding for this survey including the incentives is received from DHSC who commissioned the ONS to carry out the survey on their behalf. Incentives are offered as a thank you for participant's time.
- All participants have been issued with vouchers following a visit.
- Due to the ramp up of the COVID-19 survey the fulfilment of vouchers on occasions has exceeded the 20 working days.
- Recently we have set up a centralised logging system for complaints. We now manage and respond to complaints all from our COVID-19 mailbox within 5 working days with no complaints outstanding. The amount of complaints we have received regarding vouchers between 1st March 2021 to 19th May 2021 is 273. These complaints are due to vouchers not being fulfilled within the 20 working days for reasons such as incorrect email address, internet service providers blocking mails or email arriving in junk or spam folders which have resulted in the voucher expiring.
- Correspondence regarding vouchers for the CIS is on average 2534 emails per week, these can be on multiple themes, for example incorrect email address provided, value of vouchers, querying vouchers for missed visits or wanting to receive vouchers via post rather than email.
(b) We are aware of one participant who has pursued a claim for vouchers against our voucher provider via the small claims court.