Parents' pressure forces through vaccine payments

The Government bowed to parental pressure yesterday when it introduced legislation to enable compensation payments to children damaged by routine vaccinations.

The Government bowed to parental pressure yesterday when it introduced legislation to enable compensation payments to children damaged by routine vaccinations.

Ministers used the Regulatory Reform Bill, aimed at deregulating small businesses, to implement a scheme that will double payments to £100,000 - as promised by Alistair Darling, the Social Security Secretary,in June.

The Government came under fire from the Tories when the measure was originally absent from the Queen's Speech. Ministers later made clear that changes to the 1979 Vaccine Damage Payment Act would be made as part of the Regulatory Reform Bill's provisions. The measure will reduce the disability threshold to 60 per cent and increase the claim cut-off age to 21. Under the scheme, at least 900 children who have already qualified for a payment will receive up to £67,000 extra. Parents' organisations had argued for years that one-off payments of £10,000 to £40,000 did not begin to cover the cost of caring for a severely disabled child. The new measures under the Vaccine Damage Payment scheme are expected to cost £60m. Families who received compensation under the existing scheme, set up in 1979, will be entitled to top-up payments up to £100,000.

Speaking during the Bill's second reading debate, Lord Haskins, chairman of the Government's Better Regulation task force, said: "Up to now and at present, payments have only been made to children damaged who are 80 per cent disabled.

"The proposal now is to lower that level to 60 per cent. Parents would also be allowed to make a claim until the child is 21, which is an improvement to the current six-year limit. This admirable proposal could be used quickly and to the benefit of all under the new Bill."