Request

When a claim is received following the death of a person, is a death certificate confirming the cause of death as due to a Covid 19 vaccine sufficient evidence to award a payment?

Or would it still be necessary to request all medical records even when the cause of death is confirmed as due to a Covid 19 vaccine?

Response

On 25 May 2024, we responded to your request. Although the information provided was correct, we have revised the response which is below. We ask that you disregard our previous response. Thank you for your understanding, and please accept our sincerest apologies.

All claims are assessed on a case-by-case basis by an independent medical assessor.

Under the policy of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, a medical assessment for each claim can only commence once we have received full medical records from a claimant’s healthcare providers.

For claims on behalf of someone who has died, the independent medical assessor will look at the claim form, the vaccinated person’s full medical records, the vaccinated person's death certificate, clinical research, epidemiological evidence, and the current consensus of expert medical opinion. This ensures an appropriately considered outcome.

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

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01831