Poverty at the end of life in 2024

<p dir="ltr">This report provides an update of previous research on poverty at the end of life in the UK, conducted initially in 2022 and subsequently updated in 2024, and funded by Marie Curie. During this period that have been some notable pressures on household finances: the initial loss the Winter Fuel Payment for all but the poorest pensioners, quarterly increases and decreases in the energy price cap and inflation remaining high, especially on food. In July 2024, the new Labour government came into power. Whilst it is too early to assess the impact the change of government may have on poverty, there is a need to make sure that evidence is available to inform policies and decisions that could potentially affect the risk of poverty and inadequate living standards for individuals and households. For people with terminal illness, this is of urgent importance, as for many people they have limited time to wait for any positive policy changes to take effect. Our updated statistics on poverty and financial insecurity at the end of life demonstrate this remains a persistent and critical issue.</p><p dir="ltr">In addition to updating the headline statistics from our previous study, new analysis is introduced in sections 5 and 6 conducted on alternative indicators of financial security and incomes sources at the end of life, respectively.</p><p dir="ltr">Deep poverty, which is defined as living on an income of less than 50% of the poverty line, is analysed in section 5.1. The UK Household Longitudinal Survey publishes data on diverse aspects of material deprivation which we explore in relation to poverty at the end of life in section 5.2. The proportion of people who fall below the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) at the end of life is examined in section 5.3. These additional measures give us a more complete understanding of the role of living standards in the last twelve months of life.</p><p dir="ltr">Section 6 investigates the role of different income sources at the end of life and explores how the proportion of income from work, benefits and other sources change in the last year of life. An update of fuel poverty headline statistics is included in Section 7, including new analysis on the risk of fuel poverty by heating source</p>