Covid vaccine injury claimants wait over a year for compensation assessment

Hundreds of people who claim to have received Covid vaccine injuries have been waiting more than a year for their claim for compensation to be assessed.

Claimants to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) are entitled to £120,000 if they have been left severely disabled. 63 of the more than 4,000 applications relating to Covid jabs made since November 2021 have been approved. However, 512 claims received more than 12 months ago have not yet reached an outcome. As of the beginning of April, no claim has received a face-to-face assessment.

Claims are being judged on a threshold set before the Second World War for wounded soldiers. Claimants must be "60 per cent disabled" to receive the pay-out, a threshold that campaigners, lawyers and victims call "antiquated and unfair."

In November 2021 the NHS Business Service Authority (NHSBSA) took over the scheme from the Department for Work and Pensions and increased the number processing claims 20-fold. Non-Covid claims take around six months to process, but according to the NHSBSA, Covid-related claims "may take longer."

A partner at a law firm, who is leading a legal action against AstraZeneca, Sarah Moore, said the VDPS is "failing" those affected. "Assessing vaccine causation requires specialist medical skill. Quantifying the percentage of disablement should, at the very least, be based on a physical, in-person, assessment by an expert. These are complex assessments. Yet the VDPS setup appears to be aimed at prioritising cost-cutting over accuracy – another example of how the VDPS is failing those it is supposed to support," she said.

According to the Office for National Statistics, there have been 59 deaths involving Covid jabs in England.

The Johnson Partnership

Nottingham Solicitors

01159 419141