500 children a day catch up on vaccinations thanks to No Jab law

Hundreds of kids a day have caught up with their vaccinations since July 1 thanks to new No Jab No Pay changes, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. The surge in numbers is a result of change that reduces a parent’s family tax benefit.

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More than 500 children a day have caught up with their vaccinations since July 1 thanks to new No Jab No Pay changes.

Government data obtained exclusively by The Sunday Telegraph shows 80,000 children have caught up in the five months between July 1 and ­November 30.

The surge in numbers is a result of a change that reduces a parent’s fortnightly Family Tax Benefit Part A instalments by about $28 per fortnight for each child that does not meet the immunisation requirements.

Around 80,000 kids have caught up on their immunisations from July to November. Picture: iStock

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The government gave the families of 245,000 children a 63-day grace period to catch up on all shots and a third of those — about 80,000 children — are now on schedule.

“This means on average more than 500 children a day who did not meet immunisation requirements when this new policy started on 1 July 2018 have taken action,” a department spokesman said.

About 110,000 did not respond within the grace period and a further 40,000 are still within a grace period.

The data shows that since the government introduced its initial No Jab, No Pay policy on January 1, 2016, ­almost 250,000 children and their families have taken action to ensure they meet immunisation requirements.

Australia now has the highest vaccination rate on record with 94.62 per cent of children aged five years fully immunised, up 2.03 percentage points since before the changes.

Toni McCaffery, who lost her baby Dana to whooping cough in 2009 when vaccination rates were sliding to dangerously low levels, has supported No Jab No Play/Pay policies because “nothing else was working”.

“The data shows the policies are working and saving lives. More children are protected and this makes childcare and preschool safer and healthier for everyone,” she said.

Greg and Catherine Hughes, who lost their son to whooping cough, were thrilled after hearing how many kids are being vaccinated.

Catherine and Greg Hughes, who lost their baby son Riley to whooping cough in 2015, agreed.

“The numbers are phenomenal. We are thrilled that so many more children are getting vaccinated thanks to the No Jab No Pay policy. This policy is making a real difference to children’s lives, ensuring they are protected against diseases that could potentially kill them,” Mrs Hughes said.

“Ideally, education would be enough to convince all parents that vaccination is the right thing, but with the global rise of anti-vaccination and anti-science ideology, we think strong policy like NJNP is needed.”

NSW has also achieved its highest vaccination rates with the figures for children fully vaccinated at five years of age increasing by over 6 per cent from 2010 to 2018.

Katie Bournelis makes sure her daughter Isabelle, 16 months, is always up to date with her vaccines. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Isabelle Bournelis was born 10 weeks premature in August 2017 due to her mother suffering pre-eclampsia. Isabelle weighed a tiny 900g and, as a result, her parents Katie and Chris have always made sure she is up to date with her vaccines.

‘I’ve always been a believer and made sure she is up to date because she was so little and we wanted to keep her protected. She’ll have her 18-month shots in February,” she said.

Increasing activity of anti-vax campaigners online has prompted the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission to issue a new warning about anti-vaccination campaigners “and the potential risks that such persons and associations pose to the public health and safety”.

“Health consumers should be ­particularly wary of persons claiming to be ‘experts’ or to have conducted ‘research’ into the safety and efficacy of vaccines or immunisation programs in circumstances where they do not hold relevant medical qualifications and are not a registered health practitioner,” the December 18 warning reads.