Forget the cost-of-living crisis: One London council wants to support the cost-of-DYING crisis
Islington Council backs charity campaign to support the 26% of people in the borough who experience poverty as they face the end of their lives
Islington Council has become the first London local authority to back a controversial “Cost of Dying” campaign supported by charity Marie Curie—a move that’s left residents gasping and furious in equal measure.
In a packed full council meeting on December 4, councillors pledged to “do more” for terminally-ill residents struggling with soaring bills as they near the end of their lives—from council tax rebates to additional help with fuel costs.
Disgraceful levels of poverty in Islington
Shockingly, Cllr Flora Williamson, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Finance and Performance, stated: “Marie Curie’s research has found that 26% of people in Islington experience poverty in the last year of their life”.
In response to the move, Jamie Thunder, Senior Policy Manager for Financial Security at Marie Curie said the council, “is to be applauded for becoming the first council in London to commit to supporting terminally ill people financially … Dying people don’t have time to wait. No one dealing with terminal illness should need to hesitate for a moment to put the heating on, or to put food on the table”.
Similar commitments were made earlier this year by Manchester City Council and Bristol City Council.
Poverty across the nation
But critics say the well-intentioned motion simply highlights a grim reality: in modern Britain people are literally dying because they can’t afford to live.
Marie Curie has extended its research to the national stage in the Cost of Dying report. The eye-opening headlines from this research include:
More than 300 people die in poverty every day—111,000 per year.
A social tariff could prevent up to 54,000 people dying in fuel poverty.
Women are more likely to die in poverty than men.
110,000 people over 65 die in fuel poverty every year.
47% of Black people who die while still of working age face poverty at the end of life.
If planned rises to the State Pension Age go ahead, over 15,000 people a year will die before accessing the State Pension.
Fuel poverty in the last year of life is most common in London, the North East of England and Northern Ireland.
Worthy ambition or sign of national shame?
So here we are, in one of the richest cities on Earth, applauding ourselves for offering a few rebates and warm words to people who are literally running out of time.
While Islington’s leaders strike solemn poses and charities issue grim statistics, the bigger scandal goes untouched: a country where dying in poverty has become normalised, even managed, by the state.
This isn’t compassion—it’s an admission of failure. And until ministers stop tinkering at the edges and start asking how Britain ended up in a place where keeping the heating on at the end of life is a political achievement, this shameful “cost of dying” will remain the bleakest bill of all.