Marie Curie response to Jeremy Hunt mini-budget statement

Mark Jackson, Senior Policy & Research Manager for Marie Curie, said: "Today's statement will have done little to reassure terminally ill people who are worrying about how to pay their bills this winter.

"The continued lack of clarity about whether benefits are going to be increased in line with inflation next April will be of deep concern to the two-thirds of terminally ill people who rely on benefits as their main or only income. With 90000 people already dying in poverty each year, it could not be right to impose a further cut which would leave dying people even worse off as prices continue to rise.

"Furthermore, the scaling back of the planned energy support package will leave many facing additional uncertainty about what the cost of heating their homes will be next year. Staying warm is vital to the health and wellbeing of people at the end of life and the government needs to confirm that targeted support for fuel costs will be made available for terminally ill people - without which many people could die before their time.

"The government must use the Medium-Term Fiscal Plan at the end of the month to provide this certainty on energy costs and to uprate benefits in line with inflation. It must also listen to the 135,000 people who have signed our petition to give terminally ill people in working age access to their State Pension which is the best way to stop people falling into poverty at the end of their lives."