POLL OF THE DAY: Should hospices be exempt from the Chancellor’s national insurance hike? – VOTE NOW

Several hospices have issued urgent funding appeals after warning about the impact the Rachel Reeves’s national insurance hike.

Hospices across the country raised alarm bells almost immediately after the Chancellor made her major financial statement in late-October.

Her raid on employers’ National Insurance Contributions appears to have had a specifically negative impact on hospices.

Hospices have been forced to grapple with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of additional costs to cover the levy increase.

Care provided by hospices is free to use, but unlike the NHS, they only receive a third of their funding from the Government, relying on charity contributions for the rest.

Hospice UK had already said that 2023-24 “was by a distance the worst financial year we have ever seen for the hospice sector”.

The industry body also estimated that the sector was heading for a deficit in the region of £60million this year – mostly driven by increased staffing costs.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting last month revealed that hospices would receive financial help to cope with the looming crisis.

Streeting said he would change the Government’s grant to “make sure we’re protecting our hospices” – with further details being announced before Christmas.

The Department of Health & Social Care said in a statement: “We are working to make sure everyone has access to high-quality end of life care.

“The choices the Chancellor made in the budget allowed us to invest another £26billion in the NHS.”

With that in mind, do you think hospices should be exempt from the Chancellor’s national insurance hike? Have your say in the poll above.