Request

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 please provide the following information. The Vaccine Damage Payment Act 1979. Since the Act was implemented and with regard to the Vaccine damage Payment Scheme, please supply (a) the number of occasions when the qualifying threshold of disablement was set at 80% when claims were refused because the level of disablement was immediately assessed as less than 80% and causation was not investigated and /or established (b) the number of occasions when the qualifying threshold of disablement was set at 60% when claims were refused because the level of disablement was immediately assessed as less than 60% and causation was not investigated and /or established For your convenience I provide a quote by Mr john Patten from Hansard in 1985 quoting the figure at that time. (My emphasis and underlining) Vaccine Damage (Compensation) Volume 72: debated on Thursday 31 January 1985 Up to 4 January 1985, the latest date for which figures are available, disablement was less than 80 per cent. in the following unsuccessful applications for a vaccine damage payment: 14 where the cause of such disablement was accepted as resulting from vaccination; 226 where the cause of such disablement was not accepted as resulting from vaccination; and 315 where the disablement was so substantially less than 80 per cent. that the cause was not investigated.

Response

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) took over the administration of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on 1 November 2021.

Since taking over the scheme from DWP, no claims that have met the eligibility criteria to apply for a Vaccine Damage Payment have been immediately disregarded without being considered by an independent medical assessor.

All claims that meet the eligibility criteria to apply for a Vaccine Damage Payment (see https://www.gov.uk/vaccine-damage-payment/eligibility) are assessed by an independent medical assessor – a General Medical Council registered doctor with a license to practise.

Data regarding the claims process prior to 1 November 2021 is not held by the NHSBSA. You can make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to DWP at: www.gov.uk/guidance/make-a-freedom-of-information-foi-request-to-dwp

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01441