Shocking new data reveals hundreds of Fifers have died in poverty

End-of-life charity Marie Curie said it was "shocking" that more than 90,000 people across the UK pass away while living in poverty annually and called for urgent action from the UK Government.

The estimates suggest that 564 people in the Kingdom died in 2019 having experienced poverty in the last year of their life.

That accounts for around 14% of the total number of deaths in the area.

A total of 390 are estimated to be pensioners, and 174 of working age.

Researchers modelled estimates using a combination of data from a survey which closely followed the lives of thousands of people from 2009 to 2019, and local figures on deprivation.

Marie Curie is now calling for urgent action to give terminally ill people of working age access to their State Pension.

Matthew Reed, chief executive, said: "No one wants to imagine spending the last months of their life shivering in a cold home, struggling to feed themselves, their children, and burdened with the anxiety of falling into debt.

"We are staggered to see the scale of poverty among dying people.”

The charity is also calling for greater support with energy costs to be made available to all terminally ill people.

A Department of Work and Pensions spokesman said: “The Government is taking decisive action to ease pressures on the cost of living, including spending £22 billion across the next financial year to support people with energy bills and cut fuel duty.”