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UK Vaccine Injury Scheme Costs £83m to Run, £32m Paid Out

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Administration and medical checks for the UK's Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme have topped £83m - more than double the £32m paid to victims.

Running the UK government's compensation scheme for people harmed by vaccines has cost £83m since April 2022 - more than twice the roughly £32m handed to victims over the same period, newly disclosed figures show. The money went on staffing, administration and independent medical reviews, while payouts to claimants lagged far behind.

The totals were released for the first time in a written answer to backbench Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope. Health minister Dame Diana Johnson confirmed the £83m figure covered the period from April 2022 to March 2026. The scheme is run for the government by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA).

Of the claims lodged since November 2021, just 264 have succeeded out of 24,260 submitted. Most applications now relate to the AstraZeneca jab and other Covid vaccines, a sharp shift since the pandemic pushed applicant numbers up steeply.

From £4.3m to £19.3m in medical checks

The cost of the medical assessments alone has climbed steeply. In 2022/23 they came to £4.3m; by 2025/26 the annual bill had reached £19.3m. The NHSBSA links the rising expense directly to the growing caseload, saying claim volumes have jumped significantly since it took over administration of the scheme in November 2021.

By contrast, the damages actually reaching bereaved and injured families have grown far more slowly. Drawing on data up to June 2026, the total paid to those who died or were harmed after a Covid vaccination stood at £31.6m.

The Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme dates back to 1979 and was designed to help the small number of people seriously harmed by vaccines of any kind. Under its rules, each application is examined by an independent doctor, who decides whether the claimant meets a threshold described as "severe disablement." Those who clear that bar receive a single, tax-free sum of £120,000. Reaching a decision can stretch on for months or, in some cases, years.

Campaigners call the scheme unfit

The Taxpayers' Alliance said members of the public would be taken aback by the running costs and urged ministers to review the arrangement without delay.

Critics who represent affected families were blunter. The campaign group Vaccine Injured and Bereaved UK (VIBUK), formed to support those hit by vaccine harm, said the scheme was not doing its job. "It offers too little, too late, to too few and the cost of running it shows how inefficient it is," said the group's Kate Scott, whose husband Jamie was left severely disabled after receiving the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.

Scott pressed the government to adopt the findings from module four of the Covid public inquiry and overhaul the scheme. The inquiry's chair, Baroness Heather Hallett, recommended earlier this year that the payout be raised and calculated according to how badly a person had been injured, rather than paid as a flat sum. Ministers are still due to give their response.

The figures land against a backdrop where the value of vaccination itself is not in dispute. The AstraZeneca jab is widely credited with saving millions of lives around the world. Yet for the small group left with serious, lasting harm, the injuries have been life-changing - and the compensation route, campaigners argue, has proved slow, costly to operate and reluctant to pay out.

With more than 24,000 claims filed and fewer than 300 approved, the gap between what the state spends processing applications and what it pays to successful claimants has become the central complaint. As claim numbers keep climbing, so too do the administrative and medical-assessor bills that now dwarf the support reaching families.

Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, VDPS running costs, AstraZeneca vaccine injury, NHSBSA, Covid vaccine compensation, Taxpayers Alliance, Diana Johnson, Covid public inquiry

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