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Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme: The battle for compensation - BBC

A group of 95 people who developed health problems or lost relatives as a result of rare side-effects of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine say they have been let down by the "out-of-date" government payment scheme.

One woman whose fiance died after the jab was awarded 120,000 this week.

BBC News has since learned two more people have been told they will receive payments.

But many more are still waiting for their cases to be assessed, despite some having final death certificates meaning senior doctors and lawyers have concluded the vaccine caused their loved one's death.

As of May, more than 1,300 claims had been made to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) but only 20 referred for medical assessment.

Meanwhile, some fear their genuine but rare cases are being drowned out by a flurry of people making unproven claims about vaccine damage online.

Caused harm

Vikki Spit, from Cumbria, became the first person to be awarded money, following the death of her fiance Zion, who developed vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) eight days after having the jab.

VITT causes a very unusual combination of blood clotting and an inability to stop excessive bleeding, which in an even smaller number of cases can be fatal.

Roughly one of these reactions has been reported for every 100,000 AstraZeneca (AZ) doses given.

The risk of a healthy but unvaccinated 40-year-old man dying if he catches Covid is about 100 times higher.

But while there is no doubt the vaccines...



Read Full Story: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-61898694