Census - completed late

[johnb]

Yesterday I forgot to complete the census but the website is still active and I was able to complete the census this morning.

Just mentioning this in case anyone else forgot to complete it yesterday.

[french frank]

Yesterday I forgot to complete the census but the website is still active and I was able to complete the census this morning.

Just mentioning this in case anyone else forgot to complete it yesterday.

Didn't they say on the 21st 'or as soon as possible afterwards'? I was intending to leave it for a few days (to avoid crashing their computers …), but as the rest of the family had done it (one household a fortnight ago, which involved a degree of prescience - less of a risk in lockdown days) I thought I'd get on with it.

[Petrushka]

I was intending to leave it for a few days to avoid crashing their computers ….

That's why I did mine on Saturday night. Given the track record of government IT projects I fully expected it to crash on the day itself and the fact that the website was open almost a month prior I rather think the government did too.

[oddoneout]

I combined doing the paper version with my afternoon teabreak yesterday. A couple of the employment related questions stumped me a bit, reflecting changes since the last one I did. In 2011 no attention was paid to the different status of casual v regular employees (that had to wait several years for the EU to sort out suitable definitions and what the different entitlements are...) so I could happily tick the "employee" box. Now I am officially defined as a "worker" not an "employee" - but that wasn't an option to tick - the alternatives were self employed. Following on from that, in 2011 the season had started at the beginning of March so I was working, so could tick that box. This year though the start of the season is only provisional (although I have been allocated some shifts) and hasn't started yet due to current restrictions, and again the box options didn't quite fit. The closest was the one that included 'laid off'. In some respects that's accurate since as casual staff I am not contracted to work once the season finishes, but in theory in a normal year I could work at other sites if work is available, so not strictly laid off as the box considers it, but the closure of sites caused by Covid changed that.
Never mind, not my problem. The form has been posted now, although a bit of a struggle to get it in the box as it was slightly too wide to slip in the slot - a certain amount of shoving was involved.

[Petrushka]

I combined doing the paper version with my afternoon teabreak yesterday. A couple of the employment related questions stumped me a bit, reflecting changes since the last one I did. In 2011 no attention was paid to the different status of casual v regular employees (that had to wait several years for the EU to sort out suitable definitions and what the different entitlements are...) so I could happily tick the "employee" box. Now I am officially defined as a "worker" not an "employee" - but that wasn't an option to tick - the alternatives were self employed. Following on from that, in 2011 the season had started at the beginning of March so I was working, so could tick that box. This year though the start of the season is only provisional (although I have been allocated some shifts) and hasn't started yet due to current restrictions, and again the box options didn't quite fit. The closest was the one that included 'laid off'. In some respects that's accurate since as casual staff I am not contracted to work once the season finishes, but in theory in a normal year I could work at other sites if work is available, so not strictly laid off as the box considers it, but the closure of sites caused by Covid changed that.
Never mind, not my problem. The form has been posted now, although a bit of a struggle to get it in the box as it was slightly too wide to slip in the slot - a certain amount of shoving was involved.

The guidance given for such Covid inflicted situations was to give your answer as it stood on March 21.

The question that has stumped our family every census year was the one regarding whether you live in a semi-detached house or an end terrace. It's a slightly strange situation as my home could legitimately be described as either and. now I'm alone to have to make the decision, I plumped for the former.

[oddoneout]

The guidance given for such Covid inflicted situations was to give your answer as it stood on March 21.

The question that has stumped our family every census year was the one regarding whether you live in a semi-detached house or an end terrace. It's a slightly strange situation as my home could legitimately be described as either and. now I'm alone to have to make the decision, I plumped for the former.

It's a semi for estate agent purposes and end terrace for everyday use! The difference will relate to whether there is right of access at the back of the property for neighbours to get to their properties. A semi won't have( or ever have had) that but terraces that don't have a gate out onto a rear service road will, even if it isn't used anymore.

[Serial_Apologist]

The guidance given for such Covid inflicted situations was to give your answer as it stood on March 21.

The question that has stumped our family every census year was the one regarding whether you live in a semi-detached house or an end terrace. It's a slightly strange situation as my home could legitimately be described as either and. now I'm alone to have to make the decision, I plumped for the former.

If there are further houses attached beyond your adjacent neighbour's, it would be end terrace, surely. Either that or hemi-semi-detached, demi-hemi-semi-detached, etc etc.

[Petrushka]

It's a semi for estate agent purposes and end terrace for everyday use! The difference will relate to whether there is right of access at the back of the property for neighbours to get to their properties. A semi won't have( or ever have had) that but terraces that don't have a gate out onto a rear service road will, even if it isn't used anymore.

My thoughts on this went along very much the same lines so it seems I was correct in listing it as a semi. It's odd because my home (and next door's) was sort of built on to an already existing terrace without actually being part of it (if that makes sense).

[vinteuil]

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... in our contrarian way my wife and I did ponder whether we could get the census computer to crash if one of us said we were married to someone of the same sex and the other said married to someone of the other sex. We were pretty disappointed with the range of orientations on offer too...


(In the end we were boringly compliant and supplied vanilla entries all round. I did wonder, though, whether - having said that we were educated to degree level, it was really necessary to provide info on A and O levels... )

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[Bryn]

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... in our contrarian way my wife and I did ponder whether we could get the census computer to crash if one of us said we were married to someone of the same sex and the other said married to someone of the other sex. We were pretty disappointed with the range of orientations on offer too...


(In the end we were boringly compliant and supplied vanilla entries all round. I did wonder, though, whether - having said that we were educated to degree level, it was really necessary to provide info on A and O levels... )

Many employers are more interested in 'O' and 'A' level grades than in degree results. I do not understand the rationale involved. However, one needs neither 'O' nor 'A' levels to commence a degree course. There are altenative routes to entry.

[Frances_iom]

.(In the end we were boringly compliant and supplied vanilla entries all round. I did wonder, though, whether - having said that we were educated to degree level, it was really necessary to provide info on A and O levels... )
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I started in the comments tail piece to describe some of the Q's as cr@p but apparently such honest replies were blocked, maybe I didn't tick the correct box - paper forms at least allowed additional comments even if these were later ignored - I being ancient have no GCSEs but do sufficient O + A levels + even have an S-level so one box ticked and the other ignored. Likewise why no Q re higher level degrees nor Q as to subject area - I know that we do well on cultural 'industries' but it is going to be STEM subjects that allow our industries to compete in a rapidly growing hostile world - see the EU response to vaccines which will be the start of other fights to come - the same EU president who will turn off the vaccines was the same one who invoked article 16 without even consulting the Irish let alone the Brits - I'm afraid that this sort of behaviour will increase in short term.

[french frank]

I being ancient have no GCSEs but do sufficient O + A levels + even have an S-level so one box ticked and the other ignored.

I lied about that and said I had GCSEs, they being close enough to O levels. Overall my answers were near enough correct, though I wish now that I'd ticked 'Christian' as I regard myself as culturally Christian.

[vinteuil]

Overall my answers were near enough correct, though I wish now that I'd ticked 'Christian' as I regard myself as culturally Christian.

... interesting, that. We pondered too. We're both atheists, but we're 'lapsed Catholic' atheists - and 'culturally' that certainly signifies...

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[Bryn]

... interesting, that. We pondered too. We're both atheists, but we're 'lapsed Catholic' atheists - and 'culturally' that certainly signifies...

"Once a Catholic . . . "

The closest thing to a religion, for me, would be autopoiesis.

[Nick Armstrong]

Didn't they say on the 21st 'or as soon as possible afterwards'?

.... or as soon as you get the letter. I did mine about 10 days ago, on the basis there was no change between then and yesterday