Running costs of vaccine damage scheme more than double amount paid to victims

The government scheme to support people injured by Covid vaccines and other jabs has cost £83m to run since April 2022, new figures have revealed.

The amount spent on administration costs and medical assessments is more than double the £32m paid out in financial support to victims so far.

The Taxpayers' Alliance think tank said the public would be "stunned" at the cost and called for the government to urgently review the scheme.

NHSBSA which runs the scheme for the government says rising numbers of claims are behind the increasing administrative and medical assessor supplier costs.

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The latest data, external shows there have been 24,260 claims since November 2021, although just 264 have been successful.

The Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) was set up in 1979 to provide financial support to people who, in rare cases, had been harmed by vaccines of any type.

Since the pandemic the number applying for damage payments has increased sharply.

The vast majority of applications are now linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine and other Covid jabs.

The benefits of vaccination are well documented. The AstraZeneca Covid jab is credited with saving millions of lives worldwide. But for those who were harmed, the resulting injuries are devastating.

'Severe disablement'

The full costs of the VDPS have now been revealed, external for the first time in the answer to a parliamentary question from the backbench Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope.

In response, health minister Dame Diana Johnson said a total of £83m had been spent on staffing costs, administration and medical reviews between April 2022 and March 2026.

Under the scheme, claimants must have their application reviewed by an independent doctor, to check whether they have met the threshold of "severe disablement".

If approved, they can then receive a one-off, tax-free payment of £120,000. The process can take months or even years.

The costs of those medical assessments have increased from £4.3m in 2022/23 to £19.3m in 2025/26, according to new data published by the government.

Based on the latest available data up to June 2026, the total amount paid out in damages to those who died or were injured after being given a Covid vaccine has risen to £31.6m.

"The administrative costs and medical assessor supplier costs of the VDPS are driven by the number of claims received," said the NHSBSA, which runs the scheme on behalf of the government.

"We have seen a significant increase in the number of claims received since taking over administration of the VDPS in November 2021."

'Not fit for purpose'

The campaign group Vaccine Injured and Bereaved UK (VIBUK), which was set up to support families affected, said the scheme was not fit for purpose.

"It offers too little, too late, to too few and the cost of running it shows how inefficient it is," said the group's representative Kate Scott, whose husband Jamie was left severely disabled by the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.

Scott called on the government to act on the recommendations from module four of the Covid public inquiry and reform the scheme.

Earlier this year, the Covid inquiry's chair, Baroness Heather Hallett, recommended increasing the payout and basing it on the degree of injury suffered.

The government is due to respond to her recommendations.

The BBC has previously reported on the large sums paid to an external medical provider which has been carrying out medical assessments.

The Taxpayers' Alliance, a right-leaning think tank which campaigns for lower taxes and spending, said that the public would be "stunned" that the running costs of the scheme appeared to be "far more than has actually been paid out to those harmed".

"When administrative costs are running into tens of millions, ministers need to explain why the system is so expensive and whether victims are getting value from it," said the organisation's chief executive John O'Connell.

He called for the government to urgently review the scheme, cut "unnecessary bureaucracy" and make sure "more of the money goes to those it was created to help."

The Department for Health and Social Care said it is "carefully considering" the COVID-19 Inquiry's recommendations on reforming the scheme and "will respond shortly".

"In the meantime, we are working to speed up claims and improve the experience for applicants," the government said.

NHSBSA said it continued to work "closely" with the government on "managing the costs of the VDPS".