Westminster Notes - Comfort and dignity for end of life

This is an unforgivable situation which requires urgent remedy – and one immediate and affordable solution would be for the UK Government to permit early access to State Pension for terminally ill people.

This is the chief recommendation of the ‘Dying in Poverty’ campaign by end-of-life charity, Marie Curie, further to research undertaken by Loughborough University.

Since its introduction in 1948, the State Pension has played a vital role in supporting us towards the end of life when we are less capable or incapable of work.

Given the egregious reality that 25% working-aged people with terminal illness die in poverty, extending this provision to terminally ill people who are also usually unable to work, is only sensible and decent.

This policy would cost £114.4 million per year. This may sound a hefty sum but is in fact only 0.1% of the annual State Pension bill – a small price to pay to ensure so many do not spend their final days in poverty.

Notably, in France, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy and Spain, similar policies are already in place for people with terminal illness or disabilities.

Meanwhile, in the UK, no person is entitled to receive any part of their State Pension before the age of 66 (rising to 67 in 2026).

As a result, many terminally ill people die in poverty without seeing a penny of their State Pension.

This is despite the vast majority having diligently paid into the system their entire working lives.

Shockingly, this also includes people who have paid the full 35 years of National Insurance contributions.

While financial provisions for terminally ill people exist in the current benefit system, the statistics show these do not go far enough – and many are forced to jump through hoops just to access the most basic help.

With both the leading end-of-life charity and experts in the field recommending the solution is to grant terminally ill people their State Pension, we should take their instruction.

To further this ambition, I have twice now submitted Early Day Motions in the UK Parliament and sought support from MPs across the House.

I also last year led for the SNP in a Westminster Hall debate where I urged the UK Government to do the right thing and implement this change.

The attending UK Government Minister, Laura Trott MP, advised it would not be “appropriate” to grant early access to State Pension for terminally ill people.

But I hardly think it is “appropriate” for the UK Government to let terminally ill people die in poverty, and so I continue to campaign on this issue.

This is not by any measure a controversial proposal. Each of us has known someone with terminal illness, and we must all agree that their end of life should be spent, as far as possible, in comfort and dignity.

*Dave Doogan is the MP for Angus, and SNP spokesperson for Energy Security and Net Zero.