But something dramatic has happened since the pandemic. There have been more than double the number of claims under the VDPS for Covid jabs than during the previous four decades for all other vaccines combined.
Since the pandemic there have been almost 16,000 claims, external against Covid vaccines and 180 awards. Just over half of all claimants have yet to find out if they have been successful.
So what is happening? Of the awards, all but a handful are for damage done by the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, which is no longer used.
There is a long list, external of different health conditions that qualify for a payment but the AstraZeneca jab had one specific rare side effect not seen in the mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, which are now the mainstay of all Covid booster campaigns.
The side effect is a type of blood clot, often in the brain, combined with low platelet levels, almost always, external within a few weeks after receiving the first dose. This can cause damage in the brain and to multiple other organs.
Platelets are cells that help your blood clot, and it was so unusual to see blood clots combined with low platelet levels, that experts coined a new medical term: vaccine-induced thrombosis with thrombocytopenia, external, or VITT.
These were so unusual that the signal was not seen in the clinical trials of the vaccine involving more than 23,000 participants, but only once the jab had started being rolled out across Europe and given to millions.
In mid-March 2021, a dozen European countries briefly suspended use of the AstraZeneca jab while the clots link was investigated.
Then, in April that year, the UK restricted the vaccine to the over-30s, and a month later to the over-40s because it became clear that younger people were at higher risk from the clots.
Several other European countries, when they resumed using the AstraZeneca vaccine, set the age limit much higher: France to those aged over 55; Germany, Italy and the Irish Republic to the over-60s. Denmark halted its use altogether.
In early April 2021, safety regulators in the UK and Europe had concluded that blood clots combined with low platelets should be listed as a rare side effect.
The rare syndrome was also reported among recipients of the J&J Janssen Covid jab, which uses the same type of vaccine technology, external, in the United States.