Exclusive: Census workers paid for doing nothing after photo ID blunder

The Yorkshire Post has learnt that the laid-off staff are likely to be paid for doing nothing and that public safety protocols agreed with the police were initially broken when workers were sent out with only blank ID cards to identify themselves.

The Census is the responsibility of the Office for National Statistics it contracted out much of the work to private company Capita.

Field staff employed on temporary contracts to go door-to-door collecting unreturned forms should have photo-ID but problems processing the cards have left around 900 workers potentially idle.

A leaked internal email, sent from Census headquarters to regional managers last weekend, said: “It has been brought to our attention that there is contradictory information in the public domain on the use of photo ID passes by Census field staff.

“Information on web self-help and shared with the police makes it clear that all census staff will have photo-ID passes.

“This does not support our use of blank ID passes when new field staff are brought on whose passes are still going through the system.

”A review of the use of passes has therefore taken place today and the Census Management team have decided that the use of blank Census ID passes is no longer acceptable.

“For a few weeks now, we have had numerous calls from members of the public about bogus callers, pretending to be census staff for dubious means. The decision was also made in light of these events – confidentiality and public trust in our Census field staff is imperative.”

The email went on: “Staff who only have blank ID cards must therefore stop doing any public facing work with immediate affect. We’re very sorry for any inconvenience this causes you or your teams. There are approximately 900 staff where we know photo IDs have not yet been issued.”

It said affected staff may be able to assist with clerical work or carry unworked hours over to a future week.

But the email added: “If none of these options is possible, we will accept pay claims for the contracted hours.”

A Yorkshire-based manager, who did not wish to be identified, said field staff were only trained for their specific role and were likely to end up being paid for doing nothing.

He said: “The removal of 900 field staff is going to have an obvious impact on the number of doors that can be knocked on to chase questionnaires. Some people have been waiting over a week for their photo-ID to arrive – it’s a mess and a lot of people are angry about the situation.

“If they’re contracted to do 37 hours at nearly £8 an hour, that’s £300 a week going down the drain.”

The manager said the ID card problem was symptomatic of wider problems organising the collection of Census forms, including difficulties with recruitment and training right down to the provision of basic office supplies. “You name it, they appear to have fallen down on the job,” he said.

A 2011 Census spokesman said: “Census staff are not allowed to work house–to-house without wearing the appropriate photo identification badge. This is a strict security measure for the public’s benefit to head off the possibility of bogus callers.

“ The census has been a gigantic nationwide effort and at the start of our follow-up to remind the public to fill in their census forms, some staff began house-to-house work in error without wearing the proper photo id and just wore a census id with no photo.

“This should not have happened and as soon as it was brought to our attention at census headquarters we put a stop to it and these cards were withdrawn immediately.”

The spokesman added that “in normal circumstances” it should only take two to three days to supply photo ID cards.