5,000 people a year in region dying in poverty
PLIGHT OF TERMINALLY ILL WORKERS
HIGHLIGHTS
NEW research shows 4,795 people a year die while in poverty in the North East. That is the equivalent of 92 every week, or 13 a day – a figure described as “shocking” by end-of-life charity Marie Curie.
It revealed statistics yesterday in a new report based on work by Loughborough University. It found that people of working age are at a high risk, with one in three (32%) of this group dying in poverty.
On the back of these figures, the Marie Curie charity is launching a campaign to “end poverty at the end of life”. It is calling for UK people of working age diagnosed as terminally ill who are in poverty to have access to their state pension early.
It says that the benefits system for working age people who are dying fails to protect them from falling below the poverty line.
Having to reduce or give up work, combined with the added costs of living with a terminal illness, such as higher energy bills and paying for home adaptations and care, all contribute to the likelihood of financial hardship among this group, with costs rising as much as £16,000 a year.
Alongside early access to the state pension for terminally ill people, Marie Curie is launching its Dying in Poverty campaign and petition.
The charity has welcomed recent steps from Government to allow people with a terminal diagnosis of 12 months or less to get expedited access to benefits, but warned these changes need implementing quickly, and that much more must be done in order to eradicate poverty at the end of life.
Matthew Reed, Marie Curie chief executive, said: “No one wants to imagine spending the last months of their life shivering in a cold home, struggling to feed themselves, their children, and burdened with the anxiety of falling into debt. But for 4,795 people a year in the North East that is their reality.
“We are staggered to see the scale of poverty among dying people. Simply put, it is shocking. It is clear that the working age benefits system is failing to prevent dying people from falling into poverty.
“The UK Government must act to give dying people early access to their State Pension. It cannot be right that people who won’t live to pension age due to terminal illness miss out when they desperately need it simply because they are not ‘old enough’ when they die.”
Juliet Stone, from the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, said: “Although we expected to find an increased risk of poverty a the end of life, we were shocked to discover the extent to which this is happening across the UK. Everyone who has received a bill, filled up their car or done the weekly shop knows the cost of living is high and rising.
“For people with terminal illness, the challenges ahead, both physically and financially, are likely to be even tougher. The number of people dying in poverty has almost certainly risen even further since the period covered by our research and will only get higher in the coming months.”
Marie Curie’s report, “Dying in Poverty: Examining poverty at the end of life in the UK”, also shows how women and people from minority ethnic groups are particularly vulnerable to poverty at the end of life. The data says 28% of working age women who die spend the end of their life in poverty. This rises to 42% among working age people from minority ethnic groups.
When comparing local authorities, the research highlights that people living in urban areas such as London and Birmingham, along with areas in the North East and North West of England, are at a higher risk of spending their last year of life in poverty.