Hospices around the country will start reducing services and could be forced to close due to a significant financial crisis which charity leaders say will worsen due to changes announced in the Budget. One in five of the UK’s 200 hospices have already made service cuts in recent months or are planning to, according to Hospices UK, even before the sector is hit by the imminent rise in national insurance contributions and the minimum wage, as set out by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in October. Hospices sounded the alarm on the eve of the Budget with chief executives telling i the plans created uncertainty over finances.
Employers will now pay a national insurance rate of 15 per cent while the minimum wage will rise from £11.44 to £12.21.
Hospices UK described the changes, due to come into force next April, as “potentially disastrous” for a sector already facing a £60m financial shortfall. Several charities have joined forces calling for an exemption to the increases. Some 60 cross-party MPs have signed an open letter to Care Minister Stephen Kinnock, to be published on Monday, calling on the Government to provide emergency funding for the charitable hospice sector and to commit to long-term reform of its funding model.
“This is to prevent further cuts to frontline hospice services and staff,” the letter, seen by i , states. The MPs say the funding hospices receive from Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) is inconsistent and often does not reflect the cost of the services hos.