{"id":60602,"date":"2026-09-12T11:42:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/running-costs-of-covid-vaccine-damage-scheme-double-the-amount-paid-to-victims\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T11:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:42:45","slug":"running-costs-of-covid-vaccine-damage-scheme-double-the-amount-paid-to-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/running-costs-of-covid-vaccine-damage-scheme-double-the-amount-paid-to-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Running costs of Covid vaccine damage scheme double the amount paid to victims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It offers too little, too late, to too few and the cost of running it shows how inefficient it is,&#8221; said the group&#8217;s representative Kate Scott, whose husband Jamie was left severely disabled by the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Scott called on the government to act on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/ce3dp52l70zo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">the recommendations from module four of the Covid public inquiry<\/a> and reform the scheme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Earlier this year, the Covid inquiry&#8217;s chair, Baroness Heather Hallett, recommended increasing the payout and basing it on the degree of injury suffered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The government is due to respond to her recommendations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The BBC has previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c5yrvyv4zlzo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">reported on the large sums paid to an external medical provider<\/a> which has been carrying out medical assessments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Taxpayers&#8217; Alliance, a right-leaning think tank which campaigns for lower taxes and spending, said that the public would be &#8220;stunned&#8221; that the running costs of the scheme appeared to be &#8220;far more than has actually been paid out to those harmed&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;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,&#8221; said the organisation&#8217;s chief executive John O&#8217;Connell.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He called for the government to urgently review the scheme, cut &#8220;unnecessary bureaucracy&#8221; and make sure &#8220;more of the money goes to those it was created to help.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Department for Health and Social Care said it is &#8220;carefully considering&#8221; the COVID-19 Inquiry&#8217;s recommendations on reforming the scheme and &#8220;will respond shortly&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;In the meantime, we are working to speed up claims and improve the experience for applicants,&#8221; the government said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"> NHSBSA said it continued to work &#8220;closely&#8221; with the government on &#8220;managing the costs of the VDPS&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cj06762qegmo?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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. &#8220;It offers too little, too late, to too few and the cost of running it shows how inefficient it is,&#8221; said the group&#8217;s representative Kate Scott, whose husband Jamie was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[2721,919,802,3124,2059,2243,4876,90,514,3125],"class_list":["post-60602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-amount","tag-costs","tag-covid","tag-damage","tag-double","tag-paid","tag-running","tag-scheme","tag-vaccine","tag-victims"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60604,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60602\/revisions\/60604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}