Rachel Reeves’s crippling tax hikes put hospices on the brink

A campaigning couple flanked by 20 MPs have demanded the Government saves our nation’s hospices, telling us how Rachel Reeves’s tax and pay hikes are crippling them with higher bills.

Entrepreneurs Corin, 55, and Tricia Dalby, 52, were horrified to discover how the Budget’s National Insurance (NI) and Minimum Wage rises have saddled the UK’s struggling charities and hospices with more debt.

This week, the Daily Express told how the NI rise alone is estimated by experts to have burdened just England’s children’s hospices with an extra £5million-a-year in total on their collective bills.

So on Tuesday the husband and wife Dalbys from Bolton, who run not-for-profit energy firm Box Power CIC, travelled to Downing Street with 20 defiant cross-party MPs, demanding urgent action.

Their 37,000-name petition calls for the Government to allocate annually the first £100million from fines issued by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), from banks and other organisations, to support hospices.

The Dalbys were joined on No 10’s steps by six of their near 90 MP signatories – Andrew Griffith, Matt Vickers and Iain Duncan Smith, the Lib Dems’ Brian Mathew and Labour’s Alex Sobel and Phil Brickell.

Mr Brickell, MP for Bolton West, stressed: “Hospices, including Bolton Hospice who I continue to support, provide absolutely vital support to those in need.”

Afterwards, Mr Dalby told the Daily Express: “We started this campaign after witnessing the financial situation facing hospices getting worse – with nothing being done to help.

“We run a not-for-profit energy consultancy Box Power CIC, and our profits go to charities including hospices. We’ve seen first-hand the of impact of , soaring energy bills, and the cost-of-living crisis on the hospice sector.

“But the recent National Insurance rise is just another addition in the long list of financial pressures they’re facing!”

Explaining what action he wants now, he added: “Our campaign seeks a short-term solution, by ringfencing the first £100m of FCA fines each year to fund hospice care and help cover their current shortfall.

“So far, the FCA has collected over £174million this year alone.

“Our proposal includes an immediate release of £75 million to the hospice sector, followed by a further £75 million by April and each March thereafter, the first £100million in FCA fines to be allocated to hospices.

“My view and it seems others share it is that surely this money is better spent helping those who support us at the end of our lives rather than on day-to-day government costs?

“I’ve spoken to the CEOs of numerous hospices and it’s heart-wrenching to hear about the difficult choices including job cuts and closures they are being forced to make after years of economic uncertainty.

“We wanted to show the Government that instead of messing about with small amounts that make no difference to the funding crisis hospices are facing that there is a better, more ethical way to help plug some of the gap which has cross-party support and support from right across the country.”

Thanking his huge army of MP supporters – and a coalition of so far at least 30 different hospices – he went on: “With the backing of over 90 MPs and peers, we hope our campaign can persuade the Government to take radical action.

“Hospice care is something we will all need at some point in our lives, and the question of how to sustainably fund their vital work has been ignored for far too long.

“We urge the Prime Minister to get behind our FCA hospice funding plan and listen to the many MPs we brought to No. 10 and help them to get funding which I don’t think could be better spent anywhere else.”

Hospices across the country have said they are under financial pressure, with many using reserves to keep operating.

Unlike the NHS, hospices are not fully funded by the state and receive about a third of their funding from government. The sector has reported an estimated shortfall of £60million in the current financial year alone.

Mr Dalby summed up the concern: “I think that’s why we got cross-party MPs because it’s not political, it’s personal. Hospices are there for their community.”

The FCA operates independently of the Government but cash from fines helps to fund public services like the NHS, police, and schools.

Banks have already been fined millions of pounds this year for a variety of breaches, including treatment of customers, fraud failings and serious system and control failures.

One fifth of hospices have slashed services and scores have warned staff of widespread redundancies amid the worst cash crisis in memory.

Across Britain 200 facilities – caring for 300,000 adults and children – only get between 17-32 per cent of their funding from health budgets, the rest comes from donations and the community.

Tony Collins, Chief Executive of Herriot Hospice Homecare in North Yorkshire, said: “We need funding now and cannot wait any longer. Hospice beds are closing. This is a crisis and it needs a response now.”

Karen Edwards, CEO at Derian House Children’s Hospice in Chorley, Lancs, said some hospices were having to make “really tough decisions” including cutting frontline nursing staff.

“We need investment right now to help hospices survive the next few months,” she said.

Toby Porter, chief executive of Hospice UK, said: “Anecdotally, we think around a fifth of hospices are already making cuts and with the level of deficits in the sector, this will only go up. This situation can’t go on.”

A government spokesperson said FCA fines were already being used to fund vital public services – including the NHS.

In a statement, the Department of Health and Social Care said it wanted everyone to have access to high quality end-of-life care and was aware of the financial pressures facing the sector.

It added: “We are determined to shift more healthcare into the community and ensure patients and their families receive high-quality, personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and hospices will have a big role to play in that shift.”

* To back the petition visit