About the survey

Is this different to the annual survey?

Yes. This is a shorter survey that focuses on things that you might have experienced each month.

We would like to invite you regularly to take part in this short survey in addition to the annual survey.

What is this survey about and how long will it take?

By taking part in Understanding Society each year, you and thousands of other people across the UK provide a lot of information to researchers about important aspects of life. But we know this snapshot each year won’t tell us everything about how your life felt in between. So, we would like to ask you each month whether any of a set of life events has happened to you in the last month.

For most people, in most months we will just ask them this one question, and the survey will take less than a minute to answer. If any of the events have happened to you in a month, we will ask you a few more questions, which should take around 10 -15 minutes, depending on your circumstances. We might ask you a few extra questions the first time you answer the survey.

By completing this short survey each month, you will help researchers:

  • Understand how different life events affect people.
  • See how common different life events are.
  • Learn whether there are people who don’t experience any of these life events.

What events will you be asking me about?

We will ask you whether or not, in the previous calendar month:

  • You or your partner left your job or started a new job
  • You or your partner changed your usual working hours or earnings
  • You started a new relationship with someone living elsewhere, got engaged or married, or started living with your partner
  • You and your partner started living apart or split up or got divorced
  • You found out you are pregnant or someone is pregnant by you
  • You have a baby who is currently 6 to 12 months old

None of those things have happened to me this month. Should I still answer the survey?

Yes! It’s important that we hear both from the people who these things do happen to and people who they don’t happen to.

If none of these things have happened to you, the survey will be short. You will still get the reward in your ‘reward account’ just for confirming the events haven’t happened.

What do I need to do?

We will send your first invite to the Understanding Society Life Events study in early May asking about April, and then at the same time each month. The only thing you need to do now is to update your contact details if they are not correct. Ipsos will then contact you using those details.

Do I have to take part?

You can decide whether or not you wish to take part in this study. If you want to take part, you are free to withdraw at anytime – you don’t need to tell us why. If you withdraw from the Life Events study, it won’t affect your involvement in the main annual Understanding Society survey.

If you have any questions about participating in the monthly Life Events study, please contact our partners for this study, Ipsos on lifeevents@ipsos.com or 0800 001 4244.

Will I be rewarded for taking part?

When you answer the survey for the first time, our survey partners for this project Ipsos will create a ‘reward account’ in your name. Every time you are able to answer the survey, you will be credited with an additional amount. You will be able to exchange the reward amount for a donation to charity, or a range of gift-cards and electronic vouchers at any point – so you can spend it each month. You will be able to exchange it for e-vouchers or digital codes which can be used at: ASDA, Argos, Boots, Costa, John Lewis, M&S, Pizza Express, Sainsbury’s, and TK Maxx, among others. If you cannot use e-vouchers, paper vouchers will be available for use in a few places.

The Select website shows the full list of retailers that are available through the reward account. However, not all of the retailers let you get a £1 voucher. For example, Amazon has a £5 minimum voucher amount, so you would need to save your reward account until you had at least £5 to be able to get an Amazon voucher.

How will I be invited to take part?

We will send the invitation to the online survey by email and SMS text message, depending on what contact information we have for you. If you haven’t given us your email address or mobile telephone number, or you want to update the contact information we have for you, then you can do that at https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/participants/update

How can I opt-out of the Understanding Society Life Events study?

If you want to opt-out of receiving the invitations to the Life Events study, you can do that by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email invite. Please select which method of contact you want to unsubscribe from. If you have time, we would be interested in hearing from you about why you are opting out, so please let us know in the text box. It may take a week to process the opt-out, and so you may receive one or two reminders after you’ve unsubscribed. This won’t affect your participation in the main Understanding Society annual interview.

Whom can I contact if I have problems accessing the survey?

Please contact our partners for this study, Ipsos on lifeevents@ipsos.com or 0800 001 4244.

Your data

Does what you are doing have ethical approval?

The Understanding Society study has been approved by the University of Essex Ethics Committee. This Committee has examined the whole survey process and have approved the questions, as well as how the data are dealt with once they have been collected.

Are my data confidential?

Yes, Understanding Society is being conducted in accordance with the Data Protection Act. This means your personal details will be kept strictly confidential and you and your household will not be identifiable from the data. Your personal details or survey answers will never be used for marketing purposes. Please read our article on confidentiality.

Moving house or changing your contact details?

I’ve moved house or am about to move. Can I still take part?

Yes, definitely. Please let us know of your new address by filling out the contact details update form on our website. You will receive a £5 voucher for letting us know your new address.

I haven’t moved house, but I have got a new email address or mobile number.

You can let us know about a new email address, or a new mobile telephone number, by using the contact details update form at https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/participants/update

Understanding Society, GDPR, and Privacy

Will my information be kept confidential?

Understanding Society is managed in accordance with the Data Projection Act and GDPR legislation. We are always extremely careful to protect the confidentiality of the information you give us. Your survey answers are always anonymised. Your personal details such as name, address and date of birth are removed, so that you cannot be identified.

Your anonymised information is combined with the tens of thousands of survey answers from other Understanding Society participants and is securely deposited in the UK Data Archive, which is based at the University of Essex. Social researchers can register with the UK Data Archive to use Understanding Society data. Understanding Society data can only be used for genuine social research that can demonstrate public interest and not just be used for commercial gain. Your details are never made available to researchers or other companies who might use them for marketing purposes. However, if you tell us something that makes us worried about your safety or the safety of others in your household, we may have to discuss this with somebody else as we need to be sure you are safe.

If you have any questions about the security of your personal details, please email iserdpq@essex.ac.uk

How does Understanding Society currently keep data safe?

In addition to the Data Protection Act, the Institute for Social and Economic Research, which hosts Understanding Society, has ISO-27001 certification. This requires the study to have a wide set of rules and regulations about how we manage data.

As well as having our information security management procedures documented, we are also independently audited annually and have to undergo re-certification every three years to make sure we are following the requirements of the standard. Our fieldwork partner for this monthly Life Events study – Ipsos – has also achieved ISO-27001 certification. These procedures ensure that all efforts are taken to maintain the security of your data.

What is the legal basis for using the data?

The Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex is the data controller for the study. Please contact the Institute’s Information Technology and Security Manager (iserdpq@essex.ac.uk) if you have any questions. The fieldwork for the study is contracted to Ipsos who act as the data processors.

Since the Understanding Society study is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and both the ESRC and the University of Essex are Public Bodies, we use Public Task as the lawful basis for processing this data. Personal data are not transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA), to ensure they are protected by the strong EEA data protection laws. Our compliance with all the relevant legislation, and our externally certified accreditation to the international ISO27001 standard, provide you with assurance that your data is secured and protected in the strongest possible manner.

What happens to my personal data?

Your personal details (name, address, telephone numbers, email addresses) are only used so we can contact you during the year to send you information on how the survey is being used by researchers, and to invite you to participate. These details are never made available to researchers or to any other companies who might use them for marketing purposes.

The answers you give us to the survey are securely transferred from Ipsos to ISER, using an encrypted online portal. To preserve your anonymity, personal details (your name, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address) are removed from the survey data and held securely in an encrypted database to which only a small number of people have access. Your survey answers are put together with the answers from thousands of other participants and, in an anonymised format, are deposited with the UK Data Service. There is no information in the data which can identify you.

Any analysis is done on the whole sample, and results are often quoted in terms of specific percentages of people, and are not reported as individual answers. The collected survey responses are made available, through the UK Data Service, to researchers who must register with the Data Service.

Is my information secure when I answer the survey online?

Yes. The information you provide online is secure. The information you give us is downloaded on to secure servers and transferred from Ipsos to ISER using an encrypted online portal which is only accessed by a small number of individuals.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about the security of your personal details, you may contact our Information Technology and Security Manager by email iserdpq@essex.ac.uk

If you have any questions about participating in the monthly Life Events study, please contact our partners for this study, Ipsos on lifeevents@ipsos.com or 0800 001 4244.