In 2011 and 2021 the census required, on pain of £1000 fine if not done, everyone not in employment but who have ever had paid employment (their bold type) to write down the name and address of their most recent employer, regardless of how long ago it was, maybe many decades.
The letter, that included the part about being fined, ended with Yours sincerely Sir name.
So anybody made redundant or losing their job unfairly has, for the rest of their life it now seems, to be shackled in the census to an employer, as if they are not a free person but just "allowed to have their time".
I felt quite resentful about this and wonder if others do too.
I cannot understand how that information about most recent employment many years ago is in any way needed for the supposed reason for the census of planning for the future.
Someone might have lost a good job through redundancy and then, doing their best to support themselves and any dependents they might have by taking whatever job they could get, so now they are branded with that job.
Someone made redundant due to the pandemic then needed to write down the name and address of the former employer.
This was not an optional census question.
It seems like bureaucracy gone into an Orwellian nightmare.
