"Don't put up benefit barriers for the terminally ill"

Toby North, Marie Curie's Head of Public Affairs, said:
"It is not acceptable for people with terminal illness to have extra stress and barriers put in their way to accessing support. This is a time when they should be focusing on their families, making memories and living as well as they are able in the time they have left.

"The Government made some important strides forward in 2021 with changes to the special rules which made it easier for people diagnosed with an end of life condition to get support quickly. It would be hugely damaging to go backwards on that.

"Marie Curie are calling on the government to rethink some of their planned changes to benefits - like forcing terminally ill parents to migrate to Universal Credit and requiring people to jump through more hoops to get their Personal Independence Payments – to ensure that nobody at the end of life risks losing support.

"In this, a general election year, we need all political parties to be committed to improving end of life care, including ensuring that nobody dies in poverty because it's too difficult for them to access the benefits they are entitled to."