Request

Could you provide the following information under the Freedom of Information Act. All questions refer to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.

1. Can you provide updated figures on the number of applications made to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2024?

a. Of these claims made: How many were successful and how many were unsuccessful?

b. Of the unsuccessful claims: Can you provide the number of people where causation has been accepted, but they were rejected on the basis of not being considered severely disabled?

c. Of those rejected: Could you provide the number of people assessed and placed in the 30-60% disability level category?

2. Can you provide the average time in days between a claim made and resolution for claims resolved between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2024, and provide a breakdown by year?

3. Can you provide any satisfaction surveys or reviews which have been undertaken regarding the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme?

4. Could you provide any records of meetings regarding applicant's views on the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme?

Response

All information provided is as of 31 December 2024.

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds some of the information you have requested. All data relates to claims received by the NHSBSA and those transferred from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on 1 November 2021. All figures provided for relate to all eligible vaccines.

Question 1 1. Can you provide updated figures on the number of applications made to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2024?

a) Of these claims made: How many were successful and how many were unsuccessful?

b) Of the unsuccessful claims: Can you provide the number of people where causation has been accepted, but they were rejected on the basis of not being considered severely disabled?

c) Of those rejected: Could you provide the number of people assessed and placed in the 30-60% disability level category?

18,730 claims have been received by the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS).Of these, 203 claimants have been notified that they are entitled to a Vaccine Damage Payment. 9,917 claims have been rejected following a medical assessment, and an additional 1,110 did not meet the criteria for medical assessment.

Under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 to qualify for a Vaccine Damage Payment, it must be proved that an eligible vaccine was received and:

• on the balance of probabilities, the vaccine caused the disability

• the resulting disablement is severe

Severely disabled means at least 60% as defined by the principles for assessing the extent of disablement. These are set out in section 103 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 and the Social Security (General Benefit) Regulations 1982: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/4/contents https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1982/1408/schedule/2

Of the 9,917 claims which were unsuccessful, 106 claims were unsuccessful because, although the claims met the criteria for causation, the independent medical assessor assessed the disability level at 30-59%.

Question 2 Can you provide the average time in days between a claim made and resolution for claims resolved between 1st January 2021 and 31st December 2024, and provide a breakdown by year?

As part of the process of the scheme, we need a full set of medical records for each claimant, and it can take time for the claimant’s healthcare providers to gather and securely supply copies of these records. Once sent for assessment, the time it takes for the independent medical assessor to review a claim can vary from case to case depending on the individual circumstances of each claim.

Please see attached table.

Question 3 Can you provide any satisfaction surveys or reviews which have been undertaken regarding the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme?

The requested information is not held by the NHSBSA as we have not conducted any satisfaction surveys or reviews in relation to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme itself.

The requested information may be held by the Department of Health and Social Care as responsible for the VDPS Policy, or the Department of Work and Pensions as having previously provided the administration of the VDPS service.

You may therefore wish to redirect your request directly to these organisations:

Department of Health & Social Care

Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries Unit

Department of Health and Social Care

39 Victoria Street

London

SW1H 0EU

United Kingdom

Email: dhsc.publicenquiries@dhsc.gov.uk

Department for Work and Pensions

Freedom of Information requests

Department for Work and Pensions

Caxton House

Tothill Street

London

SW1H 9NA

United Kingdom

Email: freedom-of-information-request@dwp.gov.uk

Question 4 Could you provide any records of meetings regarding applicant's views on the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme?

The information you requested is not held by the NHSBSA.

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.

Reusing the data and copyright

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2025” Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.