Autumn Budget 2024 Response

Matthew Reed Chief Executive of end of life charity Marie Curie says:

"The Health Secretary himself has acknowledged that palliative and end of life care is not good enough, so we are shocked by the lack of measures in the budget to fix it. Palliative care needs are projected to rise by 25% over the next 25 years, around 147,000 more people each year, yet this government lacks a strategy to tackle the magnitude of this challenge.

Rather than offer additional support for services in crisis, rises in employer NI contributions are going to put considerable additional cost pressures on not-for-profit organisations like ourselves, which can only serve to put services we deliver on behalf of the NHS under further pressure.

Whilst we welcome record additional funding for the NHS, the government must ensure that this reaches palliative and end of life care services, through both changes to commissioning and an investment in innovative models of care which will enable charities like us to help build an NHS fit for the future.

We are pleased to see the government recognise the struggle of those caring for loved ones by increasing the carers allowance as we know that caring for a loved one at the end of life can push people towards financial insecurity.

Without urgent action, more people will die without the care and support they need. The British people desperately need a palliative care strategy, supported by a delivery plan and a new funding solution that ensures equitable access to palliative care and reduces providers' reliance on charitable donations.

We know from our recent Better End of Life report the importance of accessible and joined up community care and support to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions in the last weeks of life. If the government is to realise its ambition to shift more healthcare into the community, then it will need to invest in innovative models of end of life care that reduce such wider pressures on our health and care system. These are the very services that may now be cut if charities like Marie Curie have to pass more of their fundraised donors' money to the treasury as tax. Taxing charities is a tax on healthcare and a tax on donors.

The Government has two critical opportunities in coming months to improve the care and support we offer to dying people – the 10 year NHS plan, and the Comprehensive Spending Review in the Spring. The Government must seize both as an opportunity to put in place a strategy for the future of palliative care, and to support it with sustainable funding."