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Vaccine Damage Payment

If you’re severely disabled as a result of a vaccination against certain diseases, you could get a one-off tax-free payment of £120,000. This is called a Vaccine Damage Payment.

Effect on other benefits

A Vaccine Damage Payment can affect other benefits and entitlements like:

  • Income Support
  • Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
  • Working Tax Credit
  • Child Tax Credit
  • Pension Credit
  • Housing Benefit
  • Employment and Support Allowance

The effect the payment will have depends on a number of things. This includes the payment being put into a trust and the payments being made from it.

You should let the office that deals with your benefit or tax credit claim know if you’ve got a Vaccine Damage Payment. You can get contact details from letters they have sent you.

What you'll get

A Vaccine Damage Payment is a tax free one-off payment of £120,000.

How you’re paid

You’ll get payment direct to you or, if you’re under 18 or can’t manage your own affairs, payment will be made to trustees.

If you live with your family, your parents may be appointed as trustees.

All benefits, pensions and allowances are paid into an account, for example, your bank account.

Eligibility

You could get a payment if you’re severely disabled and your disability was caused by vaccination against any of the following diseases:

  • diphtheria
  • tetanus
  • pertussis (whooping cough)
  • poliomyelitis
  • measles
  • mumps
  • rubella (German measles)
  • tuberculosis (TB)
  • haemophilus influenzae type B (HIB)
  • meningococcal group C (meningitis C)
  • pneumococcal infection
  • human papillomavirus
  • pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 (swine flu) - up to 31 August 2010
  • smallpox - up to 1 August 1971

You may have had a combined vaccination against a number of the diseases listed. For example, you might have been vaccinated against DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) or MMR (measles, mumps and rubella).

You may also be able to get a payment if you’re severely disabled because either:

  • your mother was vaccinated against one of the diseases in the list while she was pregnant
  • you’ve been in close physical contact with someone who’s had an oral vaccine against poliomyelitis

What counts as ‘severely disabled’

Disablement is worked out as a percentage, and ‘severe disablement’ means at least 60 per cent disabled.

This could be a mental or physical disablement and will be based on medical evidence from the doctors or hospitals involved in your treatment.

When and where the vaccination must have taken place

You must normally have been vaccinated before your eighteenth birthday unless the vaccination was during an outbreak of disease in the UK or the Isle of Man, or it was against:

  • poliomyelitis
  • rubella
  • Meningococcal Group C
  • human papillomavirus
  • pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 (swine flu)

The vaccination must have been given in the UK or the Isle of Man, unless you were vaccinated as part of Armed Forces medical treatment.

How to claim

Apply by filling out a claim form. If you’re under 18, your parent or guardian should claim on your behalf.

Send it to:

Vaccine Damage Payments Unit
Palatine House
Lancaster Road
Preston PR1 1HB

You can also contact the Vaccine Damage Payments Unit to ask for a claim form:

Vaccine Damage Payments Units

  • phone: 01772 899 944
  • textphone: 0845 60 45 312

Monday to Thursday, 8:30am to 5pm Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm

Time limits on making a claim

You can only claim for a child once they are two years old.

To claim for an adult, apply by whichever is the latest of the following dates:

  • on or before their 21st birthday (or if they’ve died, the date they would have reached 21)
  • within six years of the vaccination

Appeal a decision

If you’re not happy with a decision about your claim, you can ask for it to be looked at again by:

  • the Vaccine Damage Payments Unit
  • an independent First-tier Tribunal

You’ll get details of how to do this when you get your decision.

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