Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme for disability caused by the Covid-19 vaccines and (b) applications for mandatory reversals to such claims, have been outstanding for more than (i) 18 months, (ii) 12 months and (iii) six months.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As of 5 January 2024, of the claims submitted to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to COVID-19, 157 claims have been outstanding for more than 18 months; 341 claims have been outstanding for over 12 months and 1854 claims have been outstanding for over six months.
Of these claims, no mandatory reversals have been submitted that have been outstanding for over 18 months; 18 mandatory reversal applications have been outstanding for over 12 months, and 124 mandatory reversal applications have been outstanding for over six months.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September to Question 197988 on Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme: Coronavirus, how many and what proportion of the 221 claims rejected due to not meeting the 60% disability threshold would have met a disability threshold of (a) 50%, b) 40%, c) 30% and (d) 20%.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Of the 221 COVID-19 related claims rejected due to not meeting the 60% disability threshold, as of 1 September 2023, only nine, or 4%, potentially would have met a disability threshold of 50%; 34, or 15%, potentially would have met a disability threshold of 40%; 73, or 33%, potentially would have met a disability threshold of 30%; and 116, or 53%, potentially would have met a disability threshold of 20%. The data for lower thresholds is cumulative and includes claims that would meet a higher threshold.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2023 to Question 197990 on Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme: Coronavirus, how many data subject access requests have been submitted for the 1,784 Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme claims which have been outstanding for over three months; and of those, how many data subject access requests have been outstanding for more than (a) six months, (b) three months and (c) one month.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As of 1 September, of the 1,784 COVID-19 related claims that have been waiting for the provision of medical records for over three months, 314 claims have had subject access requests (SARs) submitted, with a total of 492 SARs between them. Claims usually have an average of two to three healthcare providers listed on their claim form, which results in multiple SARs being submitted for one claim. 1,470 claims have not had any SARs submitted. Due to previous SARs not receiving the desired outcome, steps are being taken to identify other avenues to engage with healthcare providers to gather medical records as quickly as possible and improve processing times.
Of the 492 SARs submitted, 62 (12%) have been outstanding more than six months, 276 (56%) have been outstanding more than three months, 280 (57%) have been outstanding more than one month, and two have been outstanding for less than a month. 210 (43%) of these SARs have resulted in the records being received.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many applications there have been to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to covid-19 vaccinations; and how many claims have been (a) awarded, (b) rejected and (c) were unresolved for more than six months.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As of 1 September 2023, the NHS Business Services Authority has received 7,160 claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) that relate to COVID-19.
Following medical assessment, 142 (just under 2%) of these claims have been awarded and 3,030 (42.3%) of these claims have been rejected. A further 192 (2.7%) claims were found to be ‘invalid’ (for example, outside the scope of the VDPS, or a duplicate claim).
There are 3,796 currently unresolved claims, 1,010 of which (14.1% of the total number of COVID-19 related claims) have been unresolved for more than six months.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, of the claims made to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to covid-19 vaccinations, how many requests for medical documents have been made as of 6 September 2023; and, of those requests, how many have been outstanding for more than three months.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data up to 6 September 2023 is not currently available. As of 1 September 2023, the NHS Business Services Authority is awaiting the provision of medical records for 2,706 COVID-19 related claims. Of these cases, 1784 claims have been outstanding for over three months.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, of the unresolved claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to covid-19 vaccinations as of 6 September 2023, how many were received (a) more than six months ago, (b) more than 12 months ago and (c) more than 18 months ago.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data up to 6 September 2023 is not currently available. As of 1 September 2023, of the unresolved claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to COVID-19 vaccinations, 1,009 were received six months or more ago, 379 were received 12 months or more ago and 135 were received 18 months or more ago.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to covid-19 vaccinations up to 6 September 2023 were made on behalf of someone who had died; and, of that number, how many (a) were awarded, (b) were rejected and (c) are outstanding.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data up to 6 September 2023 is not currently available. As of 1 September 2023, the NHS Business Services Authority has received 539 COVID-19 vaccine related claims on behalf of someone who has died. Of these claims, 53 claimants have been informed they are entitled to a Vaccine Damage Payment, 199 have been rejected and 287 claims are outstanding.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, of the claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to covid-19 vaccinations, how many claims made before 6 September 2023 failed because (a) causation was accepted but disablement was assessed at less than 60%, (b) there was a lack of causation and (c) any other reason.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data up to 6 September 2023 is not currently available. Since the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) took over administration of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in November 2021, as of 1 September 2023, NHSBSA has 3,030 rejected COVID-19 claims. 2,809 were rejected due to lack of causation and 221 were rejected due to not meeting the 60% disability threshold. Separately, 192 claims were invalid as they did not meet the eligibility to apply under the Scheme, and therefore are not considered as rejected.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many claims under the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in respect of adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccines have met the criteria for causation but failed because of a finding that the resulting disablement was less than 60 per cent; and in how many of those cases the disablement was (a) 50 per cent or over, (b) 40 per cent or over and (c) 25 per cent or over.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Out of all claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) relating to COVID-19 vaccines, there have been 157 where causation on the balance of probabilities was accepted but disablement was assessed at less than 60% and the claim was therefore rejected. Of these 157 rejected claims, 41 were 25-39%, 23 were 40-49% and 6 were 50-59%, 86 were under 25% and one was reported as under 60% disablement without a range included in the medical assessment report.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many claims have been received by the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in respect of adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccines; and how many received more than (a) 18, (b) 12 and (c) six months ago have not yet reached an outcome.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Since the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) started administering the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) on 1 November 2021, the VDPS has received 5,809 COVID-19 vaccine related claims. Of these claims the following have not yet received an outcome, 31 were received more than 18 months ago, 374 were received more than 12 months ago and 1,076 were received more than six months ago.
While the average claim typically takes approximately six months to investigate and process from the date that the NHSBSA requests a claimant’s medical records, this timeline varies significantly depending on the individual circumstances of the claim and in particular on the length of time it takes healthcare providers to send the claimant’s medical records to NHSBSA. Steps are being taken to continuously improve processing times.