I have reported in these pages previously on the suffering of those who have been adversely affected by Covid-19 vaccines. Their suffering is largely in terms of the inappropriate delays in having their claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) considered, the difficulties in satisfying the success criteria and being largely forgotten about by the Government. It was in 2021 that Covid-19 vaccines were brought into the scope of the VDPS – which provides a one-off payment of £120,000 to those harmed by vaccines to assist with care and similar costs – to assist vaccine confidence and uptake. But the Covid-19 Inquiry recently heard that only one press release reported this at the time, and both the very low success rate of applications to the VDPS since, and the delays in processing claims, seem to reflect the Government’s approach of trying to sweep these issues under the carpet. The Covid-19 Inquiry is examining these issues as part of its Module 4, and the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference were amended to include vaccine issues following representations being made by politicians and those affected. The Inquiry also recently heard of the worrying censorship of those who have suffered adverse effects – both by the mainstream media, by medical professionals, and social media companies. Coupled with this, the campaigning organisation, Big Brother Watch, has highlighted through data subject access requests that politicians were also targeted for profiling by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Counter Disinformation Unit, the Army’s 77th Brigade and the Cabinet Office’s Rapid Response Unit, for their views on lockdowns and for raising proportionate questions in aid of those harmed.
Now over 17,000 claims have been made to the VDPS in respect of Covid-19 vaccinations. Over 50% of applications have been successful for claims relating to vaccine-induced thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT) and almost 30% have been successful relating to Guillain-Barré syndrome. But still, success rates are vanishingly low, largely because of the difficulties in showing the vaccine caused the harm suffered, and the 60% disability threshold which must be met. Only around 200 claims to the VDPS relating to Covid-19 vaccinations have been successful, though application rates have soared. To give some context, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pandemic Response and Recovery recently heard that the highest level of claims before the over 17,000 claims in respect of Covid-19 vaccines were in 1978/79, where claims reached a previous peak of around 1,700. Since then, claims have barely reached above 200 per year.
The APPG heard that the lack of transparency in the assessors’ decision-making process has been a key issue, largely owing to it being unknown as to how legal assessments are made on whether causation and the disability threshold have been reached on the balance of probabilities. In answer to my Parliamentary Questions, the Government has confirmed that the materials the assessors take into account are “the claim form, medical records from the vaccinated person’s healthcare providers, clinical research, epidemiological evidence, and the current consensus of expert medical opinion”, but that does not address patient group’s concerns that assessors are not legally qualified, are potentially making subjective decisions without a proper consideration of patterns of harm and other factors which could build in to a considered and fair approach to decisions on causation. The disability threshold itself is tied to the industrial injuries benefit regime, and so assessors are having to compare what could be an autoimmune condition caused by a vaccine with a physical injury (such as loss of a hand) on the comparable scale. That is inappropriate and may have led to such poor VDPS success rates despite the number of applications.
Should an applicant under the VDPS be unsuccessful, they can ask for that initial decision to be the subject of an application for mandatory reversal. It is only after that stage that an application to the First-Tier Tribunal can be made and only then that a lawyer can become involved. As of 17 January 2025, 3,714 claims and 201 mandatory reversal claims have been outstanding for more than six months. Of those, 1,041 claims and 82 mandatory reversals have been outstanding for more than 12 months, and of those, 517 claims and 32 mandatory reversals have been outstanding for more than 18 months. This means that only a few applications have reached tribunal stage and it is advised that only after the tribunal stage should an applicant bring court proceedings if they wish to. But in many cases the limitation period would have expired before the completion of the tribunal process. For those vaccinated in 2021 and harmed subsequently, the three-year period for claims has expired.
Hope has been placed in the Covid-19 Inquiry which heard opening written statements from patient groups last month. These followed a meeting with patient groups with Ministers who have committed to look at the issues raised. Patient groups highlighted to the Inquiry the very real disenfranchisement and pain they have suffered in the contexts of lack of informed consent, censorship, the endemic problems of the VDPS, and the lack of treatment and care available to them. The case for urgent reform could not have been made stronger. As they report, international approaches are far more caring of those harmed: Norway has set its disability threshold at 15%, in South Africa it is 5%; and countries from France, Sweden and New Zealand make payments for temporary disablement. They report that only 12 out of 38 national schemes globally provide only for permanent injuries.
For these reasons, the APPG on Pandemic Response and Recovery encourages colleagues to pay attention to these serious issues. The three Private Members’ Bills which I have introduced this Parliamentary session are: the Covid-19 Vaccine Damage Payments Bill, the Covid-19 Vaccine Damage Bill, and the Vaccine Damage Payments Act (Review) Bill. All of these seek to implement a range of measures – including increasing the VDPS payment, requiring a review of the suitability of the disability and causation thresholds and increasing the limitation period to bring court claims. It is only by making these changes that we will be doing right by those who were vaccinated but have been harmed as a result.
The urgent need for Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme reform
