Life is often more expensive when you live with a terminal diagnosis and, with the rising cost of living, more terminally ill people are being pushed into poverty every year. We're calling on the UK Government to act now.
More than 300 people die in poverty every day in the UK.
In our previous report, we found that 93,000 people a year died in poverty. Now, four years later, that number has risen to 111,000 and it's increasing. We need urgent government action to stop this growing crisis.
A social tariff can protect dying people from spiraling energy bills
People living with a terminal illness are forced to choose between powering vital medical equipment, heating their home, or buying food. Meanwhile, their energy bills can be thousands of pounds higher than the average household.
Cutting energy bills is the single most effective way to reduce fuel poverty among people at the end of life – potentially lifting 54,000 out of fuel poverty, and reducing fuel poverty for 74,000 more.
All people living with a terminal illness should have enough income to live their life comfortably until the very end
People who die before they reach retirement age are even more likely to experience poverty because of recent real-term cuts and freezes to working-age benefits.
Ensuring that working-age terminally ill people receive the same level of income as those that receive the State Pension could cost as little as 0.1% of the State Pension's overall budget, while almost halving the number of working-age people who spend their last year of life in poverty.
