How the state pension age rise will pull more terminally ill people into poverty

From this month, the State Pension age will start rising from 66 to 67. This will see thousands more terminally ill people miss out on the State Pension and face poverty as a result.

As it stands, people who are working age are almost twice as likely to die in poverty than those who are state pension age. This is because the benefits system offers significantly better protection from poverty to terminally ill people of pension age than those of working age.

Without action, this inequality is set to grow, with thousands more working-age people dying in poverty before being able to access their pension.

That is why Marie Curie is calling for working age people with a terminal illness to be able to access a State Pension level of income. This would prevent thousands of people from dying in poverty every year, with a negligible impact on government finances.

Marie Curie research has found that working age people are almost twice as likely to die in poverty as those of pension age. 29% of people who hadn’t reached state pension age experienced poverty in the last year of their life in 2024. This compares to 16% of people who had reached state pension age.

A key element of this disparity is the different amounts provided under the state benefit systems to people who are working age, compared to State Pension age. A working age couple including someone with a terminal illness can receive nearly £500 a month less in benefits than a pension age couple.

It cannot be right that someone with a terminal illness receives hundreds of pounds less in support every month just because they haven’t reached state pension age.

The injustice of this is even more pronounced, when you consider how many have contributed into the system, but are unlikely to receive the full rewards of doing so.

New analysis by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University shows that over 90% of working age people in the last year of their life have made National Insurance Contributions, with over a quarter having made the 35 years of contributions required to receive the full state pension.

Given that many people with a terminal illness have paid into the system, they should be able to rely on it to guard them from hardship at the end of their life.

Without action to address this disparity, thousands more people with a terminal illness will face an increased risk of poverty at the end of their life.

From April 2026, the State Pension age will start to rise from 66 to 67, followed by another rise to 68. Analysis by Marie Curie suggests that 15,800 more people could die before reaching pension age with these rises. With the current rates of working age deaths in poverty, this would mean an additional 4,500 working age people dying in poverty.

With every rise in the State Pension age pulling more people into poverty at the end of their life, the Government should guarantee a State Pension level of income to people of working age living with a terminal illness.

New analysis shows that topping up the income of working age people in the last 12 months of life, so they receive the same amount of state support that their pension-age counterparts do, could lift over 9,000 people out of poverty.

What’s more, the estimated cost to the state using a means-tested approach would be £2.7 million per week, which is a mere fraction of the more than £2 billion weekly expenditure on the State Pension.

People unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with a terminal illness before they reach pension age have the same additional costs and financial concerns as pensioners and must be provided with just as strong a safety net. It’s time for the government to act now and put this important protection in place, before more people with a terminal illness get pulled into poverty.