Available soon: Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) datasets

Data in relation to the number of claims received by the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) will soon be available on our Open Data Portal (ODP).

The VDPS provides a one-off, tax-free payment, currently of £120,000. Under the government’s rules for the scheme, to qualify for a Vaccine Damage Payment, it must be proved that:

• an eligible vaccine was received
• 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
• Schedule 2 of the Social Security (General Benefit) Regulations 1982

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) administers the VDPS on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). DHSC is responsible for the scheme’s rules, including the payment amount and the disablement criteria. 

The VDPS is not a compensation scheme.

What will be published 

Two regular datasets will be available on the Open Data Portal: 

• COVID-19 claims
• Non-COVID-19 claims

Both datasets will provide the number of claims:

• received
• awarded
• rejected

The data covers all claims received by us and those transferred to us from the previous administrators (the Department for Work and Pensions) – the NHSBSA took over administration of the VDPS on 1 November 2021.

Media enquiries 

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