Titled “Dying in Poverty 2024 Exploring poverty and fuel poverty at the end of life in the UK” The report estimates 10,400 terminally ill people die in poverty each year, which equates to one in four working age people and one in six pensioners – an increase from one in eight pensioners five years ago.
The findings in the report, based on research carried out by Loughborough University for Marie Curie, also show that more than 300 people die in poverty every day – 111,000 per year and that women are more likely to die in poverty than men. But perhaps the most shocking finding in the report showed that rates of poverty are higher for people at the end of life than the rest of the population.
Analysis by Loughborough University looked at how many people die not just in poverty, but in fuel poverty. The findings showed that people are forced to spend a large amount of their income on energy and are left with less than the minimum needed to live a dignified life. At least 128,000 people died in fuel poverty in 2022, each one struggling to heat their homes or run vital medical equipment, many of those receiving end of life care as higher energy costs increase dramatically for someone living with a terminal illness.
The report also asks the current government for urgency on resolving the crisis around poverty. Among the recommendations are the implementation of an energy social tariff, along a demand that the UK government, alongside devolved and local governments, establish a joint action plan to end poverty and fuel poverty at the end of life across the UK, including measures to improve the identification, recording and sharing of information about people living with terminal conditions, both in the last 12 months of life and those with longer prognoses.
Dr Sam Royston, Executive Director of Policy and Research at Marie Curie, said: “No one should have to face their final days worrying about money or whether they can afford to heat their home. And no matter what way you cut it, by age, gender, ethnicity or location, rates of poverty are higher for people at the end of life than the rest of the population."
“At a time when our politicians are debating whether or not to legalise assisted dying, surely they will also want to ensure no one would feel any pressure to choose an assisted death simply because they cannot afford the bare essentials of a decent standard of living.”
Dan White policy and campaigns officer at DR UK and one of the leads at the Disability Poverty Campaign Group said: “Yet another depressing report on the deepening depths of poverty in the UK, made all the more tragic by the fact that we mainly talking about people at the end of life.”
“How many more reports and tragedies are needed? How many more bland, cold and emotionless Government responses are we going to have to read before there is a strong and resolute plan to end poverty?”
“People at the end of life deserve dignity and all the comforts they rightly, humanly need. We are tired of asking, we are now demanding that the Labour Government turnabout, start talking energy social tariffs with us, which could lift as many as 54,000 (45%) dying people out of fuel poverty. We also must start talking about expanding the warm home discount, reversing the cuts to the winter fuel payments, and guaranteeing working age people - with less than 12 months to live - a pension-level income, anything less than this is an insult to those in need.”