THE Central Statistics Office has set up a contingency fund to deal with a flood of complaints from enumerators hired to carry out the 1996 census. Many of the 3,400 enumerators, who were expecting payments of up to £900, have received final amounts of under £100 and, in some cases, have been told they owe the CSO money.
The CSO issued advances of £60 a week to enumerators over nine weeks while they were working on the census. Many thought this was in addition to the final fee and most did not realise that the advances were liable to tax. For most enumerators, it was academic, because they were unemployed and would not earn enough to have a tax liability when the census was completed.
However, about 20 per cent of the enumerators were in part time or temporary employment, such as teachers. One of these, Ms Trish Curran, told The Irish Times of her experience.
She enumerated just over 300 houses. As a result, she was due £625.80p, plus a completion bonus of £166, bringing the total to £791.80p. However, she was stopped £213.79p tax and £15.11p PRSI. When the £540 in, advance payments are also taken into account, her final payment was £22.90p.
On unemployment benefit of a week when she took the job, Ms Curran found herself out of pocket for putting in "nine weeks of really hard work".
In fact, she could have signed on for two days a week, as the enumerators had a "notional" 25 hour working week. However, nobody told her.
The time needed to complete the enumeration varied enormously, depending on the area.
Ms Curran says that in her case, many residents were elderly and needed help completing forms.
Another part time teacher who took work with the CSO was Ms Catherine Cavendish. "I actually owe them £11," she says. She feels that the CSO did not explain adequately that tax would be deducted at the end on the £540 advance payments, or that the £166 bonus was taxable.
She enumerated 342 households but says she visited nearly 1,000 premises to do so. Many were businesses where it took two or three visits to establish there were no residents. "I had to work seven days a week, and over the Easter and May bank holidays to complete the job," she says.
While Ms Curran and Ms Cavendish can claim a tax rebate, it will be next year before they will receive it and the amount will depend on how much part time teaching they do in the meantime.
The assistant principal at the CSO's payments office, Mr Bernard Yourell, says that a contingency fund has been established to deal with "legitimate appeals", but he did not specify what would be regarded as legitimate.
"After every census it's the same, he says. "People will never be happy and who would blame them when you look at the money involved." He said that anyone seeking a P45 for tax purposes would be issued with it on demand.