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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Topic started by: ColC on Monday 28 February 22 11:51 GMT (UK)
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I received the belated 2021 census in the post this morning.
Colin
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I received the belated 2021 census in the post this morning.
Colin
Not had ours yet ???
Rosie
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Did you request a paper copy Colin ?
I understood it was all going to be digital unless a paper copy was requested.
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Census day is Sunday 20 March but you can complete, on line, as soon as it is received.
You can request a paper copy but I did not.
Receiving mine today may be down to my surname initial C?
Colin
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Don't forget our Scottish friends, the experiences of us Sassenach's when we chose to apply for paper copies last year.
Duly requesting online a paper copy, it took ages to arrive and the deadline line was fast approaching, or past, before they dropped through the letterbox: HQ inundated with requests? ;D
Forms were filled in - an occasional compiler I believe added their cat as a 'visitor' that night ::), then low and behold a week after the deadline date some people reported having census stasi turning up at their doorstep telling them they were in default [£1000 fine] for not returning their forms. Nobody at census HQ had bothered to record those people who had been sent a paper copy - late mind you and would therefore not have had time to fill them in and post back. Chaos, but typically British.
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We received ours this morning surname starts with V all filled in on line and away .
Took me about twenty minutes to fill it in
suzilad
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I've just had an interesting conversation with a lady in their call centre.
We have an old family cottage, pretty much uninhabitable in winter but used by all of my immediate family at different times during the summer. It will be unoccupied on 20 March 2022, but I will still have to fill in the household part of the questionnaire.
Question H14 asks how many vehicles the household has access to.
In the case of my own permanent home, that's easy. I have one car.
But in the case of a holiday cottage that is never rented out commercially, how many cars does the household have access to? I reckon that if I add up all the cars belonging to my family, there must be six or seven. I can't just put none, because while that is true on 20 March, the question is intended to help with road planning etc, so answering none is not going to provide the information the local authority needs - there are 15 holiday cottages in the village which obviously generate traffic and therefore wear and tear on the roads, even though none of the 15 cottages is occupied on 20 March.
So I rang up to find out, and at first the lady (whose first language is not English) completely failed to understand the question. She told me I must tell the truth! But I asked her which version was 'the truth', and eventually she grasped the point of my question, admitted she didn't know, and asked me to hang on while she consulted a higher authority. Finally she came back and said I must enter the total number of cars.
So: census return, one household, no occupants, 7 cars!
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;D That is truly daft!
Monica
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Indeed. So daft I just had to share it :)
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That really made me laugh Forfarian ;D ;D
We have not had our forn yet. 10 years ago we had the paper version to fill in as my husband considers it dangerous to fill out forms online..... really!!!
Dorrie
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Just what was we need occasionally Forfarian, great, innocently spoken humour ;D
By the way, if anyone was a tad curious where the census customer services were based ??? - look no further. I've just found this job agency ad. I think that there's potential for some more intelligent job-seekers to put in their application. I wouldn't mind that sort of cash for just a few weeks work....and WFH, wow bonus there!
https://www.arvato.co.uk/job/customer-service-advisor-scotland-census-2022/
Don't delay, I've already sent it on to some 'rellies' who live in Dumbarton.
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By the way, if anyone was a tad curious where the census customer services were based ??? - look no further. I've just found this job agency ad. I think that there's potential for some more intelligent job-seekers to put in their application. I wouldn't mind that sort of cash for just a few weeks work....and WFH, wow bonus there!
https://www.arvato.co.uk/job/customer-service-advisor-scotland-census-2022/
Don't delay, I've already sent it on to some 'rellies' who live in Dumbarton.
It begins "Please contact the talent team ..." . Further on the agency is looking for people who are "passionate". That's asking a bit much - talented and passionate. A census enumerator 150 years ago only needed to be able to read, write, add up, hear and walk. As some early census collectors were clergymen or schoolmasters, I think passion would have been discouraged.
My letter about the census arrived today.
Is a sample return viewable online? I need to see all questions before I answer.
I got into a mess with a local online consultation last month then got timed out. Also took part in a ONS survey, mainly about health and wellbeing. The letter saying my household had been selected was delayed in the post. I was suspicious because the address on the first letter I received, (which should have been the 2nd letter) was different from address on ONS official website.
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I haven't seen any example for England or Scotland online M-S but I just happen to have a 'spare' (blank) English census document I am retaining in my archive. When I applied for a paper copy - I sent a reminder after a 3 week delay produced nothing, and then promptly received two in separate deliveries. Depending on personal circumstances the majority of it is wasted space: there are 32 pages in the English version.
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Is a sample return viewable online? I need to see all questions before I answer.
https://www.census.gov.scot/help/question-help
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Can't for the life of me figure out why they need to know not only my sex but also my sexual orientation! It's taking "provision" a little far when they ask that of a 75 year old woman unless they're going to provide us all with Toy Boys or Girls to keep us active a bit longer. ;D :P
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Can't for the life of me figure out why they need to know not only my sex but also my sexual orientation! It's taking "provision" a little far when they ask that of a 75 year old woman unless they're going to provide us all with Toy Boys or Girls to keep us active a bit longer. ;D :P
Yes, I wondered that too!
I had some difficulty with the question about how I commute to my place of study. On foot - from the bedroom/kitchen/living room to the computer - but there's no option to say that. :)
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Couldn't agree more with the last two posts and reference to the individual questions - but let's not get to irritable about the direction census' appear to be heading. At this point the aspect of gender is a voluntary answer and can be left blank. No doubt in the future it may well be raised-up-a-gear to include transgender and/or transitioning*. Some basic data has usually been collected for the NHS to judge possible calls upon their services: the latter two being of increased time/funding etc in the most recent times.
* Please don't ask for clarification via this forum 8)
Obviously in 2011 nobody foresaw the worldwide virus c.2019 and there was no possibility of laying in adequate resources for it. Perhaps the 2031 format could include specific questions related to Covid-19 ???
"Distance travelling to work", surely the truthful, as requested answer would be work from home. Whizz to the end - "there are no more questions for Person 1. Sign Declaration, job done.
PS. If anyone requires some guidance on how to fill in your form for Person 2 (the House Cat) send me a PM. ;D
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Oh, I promise to be good when I revise my answers before submitting, even though I may mock some of the questions a bit at this stage.
I do think it is a pity that it no longer asks for a more detailed answer to where individual people were born, which is probably the most useful piece of information in the context of family history. But I seem to remember that a few censuses ago it was proposed to drop that question entirely because it was thought to be offensive to people not born here ::)
On the other hand, anyone able to fill in this census must have been born well after the introduction of statutory registration, and by the time it's available for research they'll probably have added mother's maiden surname to the birth indexes.
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Is a sample return viewable online? I need to see all questions before I answer.
https://www.census.gov.scot/help/question-help
Thanks. I'll peruse it.
I do think it is a pity that it no longer asks for a more detailed answer to where individual people were born, which is probably the most useful piece of information in the context of family history. But I seem to remember that a few censuses ago it was proposed to drop that question entirely because it was thought to be offensive to people not born here ::)
That section also once asked for information about nationality or place of birth of parent. It was when I was young. My mother, who was form-filler in our house, remarked, on completing that section, that if ever the _____* Party got into government and decided, after "repatriating" other ethnic groups, to turn attention to the Irish, the rest of us would have to go and live in Ireland while she remained in England. She didn't really believe that, I suppose her comment may have been ironic. My Irish grandparents were born UK citizens.
* Insert name of whichever xenophobic party was active at the time.
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Question H14 asks how many vehicles the household has access to.
So: census return, one household, no occupants, 7 cars!
Just as daft - if any of the vehicles are classed as work vehicles they are not to be included - Do work vehicles magically hover over the roads ?
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Is a sample return viewable online? I need to see all questions before I answer.
https://www.census.gov.scot/help/question-help
pdf download of the form is here:
https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/documents/scotland-s-census-2022-question-set/
Boo
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I haven't seen any example for England or Scotland online M-S but I just happen to have a 'spare' (blank) English census document I am retaining in my archive. When I applied for a paper copy - I sent a reminder after a 3 week delay produced nothing, and then promptly received two in separate deliveries. Depending on personal circumstances the majority of it is wasted space: there are 32 pages in the English version.
I filled out a paper version of the Australian Census 2021. After completing the part about the number of people in the house at the time, the pages about each person had a total of six people to be enumerated. as there was only the two of us, every second page, for the other four, was totally redundant, a total of "only" ten pages ::)
One of the questions was about where did the person live five years ago. I wonder what they would have said if I had amended that one to fifty years ago. Same address ;D
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I wish they would ask how far it is to the nearest bus stop and (more important) are you comfortably able to walk that far. If they want people to use public transport they really should know about that.
They ask about how people commute to work/study. They should also be asking how people get their shopping home, because that must generate a lot of traffic.
I know I could get my groceries delivered but the supermarkets have a tendency to substitute unwanted things for what I actually order - e.g. strawberry yoghurt when I want rhubarb yoghurt, or Delicious apples when I want Cox's. (Quite apart from the more bizarre substitutions you sometimes read about! Google 'supermarket substitutions' if you want a laugh.) And if I pick my own perishables they last longer, which is important when they come in such large packs that I can't eat a whole pack at one meal. So I do my own, by car because a bag of shopping is heavy, even though I can walk to the village shops in 10 minutes.
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We were surprised just how SHORT the England & Wales 2021 online census process was. You are only asked simple questions relevant to the individuals that you enter at the start. It seems clear to me that a paper census document has to be much larger, to cater for large families and other circumstances. It's also much more error prone (because there is no checking between questions) and much more intrusive, as you have an enumerator calling at your house, and peering at your answers.
If you can enter a post on Rootschat, then entering the Census online is no harder, and takes hardly more time.
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I have just tried to do mine online and wasted so much time have gave up it keeps saying there is a problem contact us ..So had enough have requested a paper one ::)
Rosie