Census workers making repeated follow-up visits after IT glitch

‘I told two canvassers I have filled in the form so why is another one knocking on my door?’

‘Government and IT do not go together’

AN IT fiasco is causing census field workers to repeatedly knock on the doors of people who have already returned the survey.

Members of the public voiced concerns over the “diabolical” collation of the 2021 census after they were issued reminders both by post and in person.

The Office for National Statistics told The Daily Telegraph the system should register a person as having completed the census if they had returned it up to 10.30pm the previous evening.

But some people say they have been visited multiple times since submitting their responses on or before census day on March 21.

The ONS claimed it was “not aware” of this happening. But tweets from members of the public sent to the Census 2021 Twitter account and letters sent to this newspaper from readers reveal the extent of the problem.

Andrew Hargreaves wrote: “The operational delivery is diabolical. I’ve now done it twice. Stop writing to me. Stop sending people to my door.”

Dee Manning, from Birmingham, called the management of the census “incompetent”, saying: “I have filled it in online, I have been sent four paper copies. I have told two canvassers I have filled in the form, so why is another one knocking on my door? The waste of money being spent on this is ridiculous.”

Another individual, who did not want to be named, said he had received two follow-up visits and four letters since filling in the survey online before the deadline. The two field workers arrived around five days apart but were unable to change his status on the system, he claimed. “Government and IT do not go together,” he added.

The Census 2021 Twitter account has apologised to some users, saying there was an “overlap causing people who have completed their census to receive reminder letters saying otherwise”.

An ONS spokesman said: “This is a major operation across England and Wales and in a small number of instances it has taken our systems time to catch up.” The ONS added that there could be a “delay” between forms being posted back and received, leading to reminder letters being issued. But the spokesman was unable to confirm why people were receiving visits after completing the census electronically.

They added that field workers were able to update a person’s status if they had proof of completion.