Paid covid study from ONS is it genuine?

[Babymamamama]

I've just had an important looking letter in the post marked "On Her Majesty's Service" inviting my household to take part in a paid study to be swabbed regularly for covid over the course of a year. Apparently the reimbursement is up to £425 per family member. I'm trying to work out if this is a genuine study. To be honest I'd participate in this kind of thing for free if it could help the scientists in any way. Has anyone else had such a letter? I'm trying to work out whether we've been randomly selected, if this is going to everyone across the country, or is it some kind of con? Please let me know your thoughts if you've had the letter too. Apparently it's a joint study with university of oxford and office for national statistics. Not sure if I'm being naive and should bin it or not.

We've had three lots of swans taken, a different person has come each week, they seem very reliable.

However, so far I've received one voucher for £50, and that's it, there are six of us taking part and nobody else has received anything at all. I've emailed them but it takes 5 days for a reply, the first reply just said yes this is normal, wait 20 days, and I'm still waiting for a reply to my last email.

This side of things is all a bit of a shambles I think.

Hows everyone doing with the study?

We had our initial bloods and swab taken and second swab yesterday. How long on average are the vouchers coming through?

Do we get the negative results or only told if its positive?

We’re still going strong. I’ve learned just to wait for the call to book rather than expect them, still it’s fairly regular and voucher follow about a week later without fail. Kids bloody love it

We havent had any if the vouchers yet..how long do the first batch take to arrive?

I had no idea this thread was still running. I was the OP and we have been participating regularly despite my misgivings back last summer. The payments are very sporadic and sometimes are doubled or tripled up which can be a nice surprise. I’ve mainly used them for online treats from Amazon eg got DD a Fitbit which she was thrilled with. I’ve been very impressed with the staff, so polite and efficient and doing quite a brave job all things considered. It’s nice to think we are part of something bigger that helps in some way.

We’ve just joined this study and it seems like some of the issues from last year still aren’t sorted out. I don’t understand why they have to call people the day before and aren’t given a list of people to just schedule in? We’ve been trying to get the first appt for a month now. Most of the time they call and say I might be able to come at x time tomorrow.
Not very useful! For us or them.

It's genuine. I have a friend who has suffered badly financially due to covid and her family were selected. The money has been invaluable to her. They are currently doing swab tests and antibody tests.

I got asked as a one off to do a test last year and got £15.
I do another research thing for UCL, monthly antibody tests but it's unpaid.