Asked by: Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party - Livingston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any payments have been made under the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to covid-19 vaccinations.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
There have not been any Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) payments relating to COVID-19 vaccinations to date.
Claims relating to COVID-19 are taking longer to investigate and process as the related vaccines are new and establishing a relationship between them and their purported side effects takes time. Since taking over the administration of the scheme in November 2021, the NHS Business Services Authority have started processing COVID-19 vaccinations claims and will update claimants on progress. Other VDPS claims continue to be processed as usual.
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 have been received under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 for compensation for disabilities caused by covid-19 vaccinations; how many staff in his Department are engaged in assessing those applications; and how many of those applications have (a) been successful, (b) been rejected and (c) are still under consideration as of 2 December 2021 as of 2 December 2021.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As of 6 December 2021, 562 claims have been received to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme regarding the COVID-19 vaccines. These claims are currently being processed and have no outcome at this stage.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications her Department has received under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 in respect of covid-19 vaccines; how many applications have been (a) rejected and (b) accepted; and how many staff are engaged in processing those applications.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Department has received 437 applications under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 in respect of Covid-19 vaccines. All applications have been acknowledged and no applications have been rejected. All applications are subject to medical assessment to identify if, in light of all the available evidence, it is more probable than not that there is a link between vaccination and disablement.
Side effects of COVID-19 vaccines are rare and scientific understanding is continuing to grow. Following discussion with Department of Health and Social Care, DWP have now started the evidence gathering process for COVID-19 claims to allow the clinical assessment to happen, where the evidence has reached a position where a decision can be confidently made.
There are currently four members of DWP staff processing vaccine damage claims. The team are responsible for processing Child and Adult flu vaccination claims as well as recording, acknowledging and commencing the evidence gathering process on COVID-19 claims NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) will take over the administration of the VDPS on November 1st 2021. In preparation for this, NHSBSA will be recruiting and training additional resource to undertake the administration of VDPS claims. DHSC own the policy.
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, if he will make it his policy make the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme open to anyone who suffers serious injury following vaccination against covid-19 ;and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
As part of the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, the Government laid a statutory instrument adding Coronavirus to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS). This sensible step ensures that, in the very rare circumstance where someone is severely disabled as a result of taking the vaccine, those individuals can access financial assistance. Numerous diseases have been added as successive governments have rolled out more immunisation programmes, for example Human papillomavirus (HPV), Meningitis B etc.