Incentives on the Covid-19 infection survey

Dyddiad y datganiad:
25 February 2021

You asked

Please disclose the following information:

  • Where does the funding come from for the incentives for taking part in the Covid-19 infection study?
  • How much money for incentives across the whole study are deemed to be expired?
  • Where does the money from expired vouchers go to/ is it returned to the funder?

We said

Thank you for your request. The following information covers vouchers provided on the study between April 2020 and December 2020.

  1. The ONS Covid Infection Survey (CIS) was set up to measure the prevalence and incidence of Covid19 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 and can be refused or donated to a charity of their choice if that is preferable
  2. As at 31st October 2020 (vouchers issued after this date do not expire until 31 January 2021), the total amount of vouchers that have not been redeemed by participants in the CIS survey, and are now classed as expired is 116,093 which amounts to £3.8m.
  3. Please note that the expiration date of the vouchers applies to e-vouchers only and not physical vouchers which we offer as an alternative to electronic vouchers. The expiration date is the time that the participant has in which to redeem the voucher on the Sodexo platform and select a retailer of their choice to spend their voucher. Each retailer offers their own terms and conditions on expiration dates of the vouchers, but the majority offer a period of up to 1 year.
  4. In exceptional circumstances, we do offer to replace vouchers that have passed the expiration date for redemption. Each case is judged on an individual basis.
  5. We are only charged by the voucher supplier for the vouchers that are redeemed. Any vouchers that expire before redemption are not charged to us and we in turn do not charge our sponsor, DHSC

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