Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme

[Deleted User] · 12 September 2022 at 2:18PM

Has anyone got any experience with the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme?

Friend had a bad reaction to Astra Zenica that caused his ME to relapse, so now he can't work more than a couple of hours a day, or do very much at all. We understand that you have to be more than 60% disabled by the vaccine to quality, based on DWP style assessment.

He had a letter saying that they were gathering medical evidence, but a lot of this stuff is related to his ME. There is no test for ME, or many of the symptoms. How can you measure how tired someone is, compared to how they were a couple of years ago?

Is there anything he should do to make sure that his medical records have all his symptoms listed? Some of them he hasn't told the GP about, because there is no treatment so it's pointless. He did list them in the application he made with my help. The letter didn't say anything about an in-person assessment either.

He doesn't get any benefits as his partner works full time, so hasn't has a DWP assessment or whatever they call it now.

Spoonie_Turtle · 12 September 2022 at 4:18PM

Unfortunately our bizarre ME bodies can react badly to things that would otherwise be harmless, that's a risk we all had to weigh up when making a decision about the vaccine. I'm sorry your friend was unfortunate with it.

The quantifying of symptoms comes from assessments using scales, there are various different official scales but none of them very good. Could try googling 'MECFS scales' and use some of those. Your friend may find m.e._and_more's unofficial scale helpful for personal use, and maybe for wording (there are explanations on the slides after the initial scale, I didn't realise it would show up in the post!)

Regardless of the vaccine payment scheme your friend should consider applying for PIP, which is not means-tested and doesn't depend on proving the cause of disability, just goes by how whatever disability/conditions affect daily living and mobility.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/help-with-your-claim/how-decisions-are-made/

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/help-with-your-claim/fill-in-form-pip/

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-assessment-guide-for-assessment-providers/pip-assessment-guide-part-2-the-assessment-criteria

[Deleted User] · 12 September 2022 at 7:46PM

Thank you, I'll pass that along to him, great post.

He was really worried about getting vaccinated, but the GP kept texting him and telling him it was okay. As you can imagine he's not very happy about that.