Response to the Prime Minister's comments on whether benefits should rise with inflation

In response to the Prime Minister's comments this morning on whether or not the Government will increase benefits in line with inflation, Dr Sam Royston, Director of Policy and Research at the end of life charity, Marie Curie, says:

"There are no two ways about this. A real-terms cut to benefits would be a direct cut to support for dying people.

"90,000 people die in poverty each year in the UK. And terminally ill people of working age are at particular risk. For many terminally ill people, a cut in support midst of a cost-of-living crisis would effectively remove any quality of life they hoped to have in their final weeks of life.

"Dying people have higher energy bills than average, use more fuel getting to appointments and can spend several thousands of pounds a year on managing the burden of illness. Many also cannot work and their partners also lose earnings to provide care. Support through the benefits system is often critical. Anything less than a real terms rise will mean many terminally people will die sooner than their doctors predicted.

"But the best protection for people living with terminal illness is to give them their State Pension. This must be extended to working age people who are dying, too. They paid in all their working life. They have earnt the right to it."