Payouts for Covid-19 vaccine injuries are set to explode more than 80-fold to nearly $77 million by July next year, Tuesday’s budget papers reveal.

The figure was quietly buried in the Services Australia portfolio budget statement, in a table detailing third-party payments from the agency “on behalf of other entities”.

Services Australia administers the scheme for the Health Department.

The table reveals that in 2021-22, the Covid vaccine claims scheme paid out just $937,000 — which would work out to about 47 people if they each received the maximum tier-one amount of $20,000.

But in 2022-23, that amount is estimated to blow out to $76.9 million, equating to 3845 tier-one claims.