The Hospice Funding Crisis: What Parliament Is Telling Us …
And Why It Matters Right Now
Most of us don’t think about hospices unless we need them. And when we do need them – when someone we love is facing the end of their life – we assume they’ll be there. That there will be a bed. That there will be care.
Right now, that assumption is being tested in ways that should trouble every single one of us.
Parliament Has Issued a Stark Warning – And Nobody Should Ignore It
In March 2026, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published a report on the financial sustainability of adult hospices in England. The language it used was unusually blunt for a parliamentary document.
It said that the government and NHS England are not responding to the growing financial crisis in the hospice sector “with the seriousness and urgency” that the situation demands.
This isn’t a campaign group raising the alarm. This is the committee of MPs responsible for scrutinising how public money is spent. When they say urgent, they mean it.
The PAC found that some hospices have already reduced the range of services they provide. Others are planning to do so. Staff redundancies have been announced. Significant financial deficits are being documented across the sector. And all of this is happening at a time when demand for palliative and end-of-life care is rising, not falling.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, put it plainly: the institutions whose job it is to help ease our final days deserve recognition of the central role they play in our health system.
He’s right. And yet that recognition, in the form of stable, adequate funding, simply isn’t there.
The Numbers That Stop You In Your Tracks
It’s easy for statistics to wash over us. But some of these are worth taking a moment to understand their impact.
Across the UK, the number of empty hospice beds has risen by nearly 27% in a single year – from 300 to 380. Not because demand has dropped. Because hospices can’t afford to staff and run those beds.
Around a quarter of adults in England currently spend their final days in hospital. Many of them would have chosen not to be there, given the option. A third of people receiving acute hospital care are in the last year of their life – accounting for around 10 million bed days a year in the NHS.
Hospices are not a luxury. They are a critical part of how we, as a society, care for people at the end of their lives. They also relieve enormous pressure on the NHS. When a hospice closes beds or cuts services, the ripple effect is felt far beyond its own walls.
So Why Are Hospices In This Position?
Hospices in England are, in the main, independent charities. They’re not fully funded by the NHS. The national average for statutory NHS funding is around 33% of a hospice’s costs – meaning that for every £3 a hospice needs, roughly £2 has to come from charitable income. Fundraising. Donations. People like you.
Some hospices receive more than 50% of their income from the NHS. Others receive far less. There is no consistent national framework, and the PAC report is damning on this point: there is currently no nationally defined position on what proportion of hospice services should be funded through statutory commissioning.
What has made things significantly worse in recent years is that while the costs of running a hospice have risen sharply – National Insurance contributions, the national minimum wage, energy costs – government grants have not kept pace with inflation. The gap between what hospices need and what they receive keeps widening.
The government recently provided £125 million in capital funding for hospices, and that’s genuinely welcome. But the PAC’s report makes clear that it is one-off funding that does not address the ongoing shortfall in the money needed to actually run services. Meanwhile, the government’s new framework for improving how NHS bodies pay for hospice care isn’t expected to be completed until autumn 2026 – with further time needed after that to implement it. As the PAC Chair noted: a funding cliff-edge is approaching, and the reform timeline doesn’t match the reality.
What This Means For Patients And Their Families
Behind every statistic is a family. A person who is frightened. Someone who deserves dignity and peace, and whose family deserves to be supported.
At Hospice Aid UK, we know from 25 years of working alongside hospices across the UK, that hospice care changes everything. The difference between someone spending their final days in a busy hospital corridor and spending them in a calm, compassionate environment with their family around them – that difference is immeasurable. It matters more than words can easily capture.
When a hospice closes beds, there are real people who don’t get that care. People who are placed on waiting lists. Families who go through the worst moments of their lives without the support they needed and deserved
Hospice Aid UK was founded 25 years ago with a single, clear purpose: to raise funds that go directly to hospices, helping them to care for patients and families when they need it most.
What Hospice Aid UK Does – And Why Your Support Is Needed Now
Since 2016 alone, Hospice Aid UK have made over 190 grants totalling more than £1 million to hospices across England. Those grants have funded things that wouldn’t otherwise exist – specialist nursing hours, essential equipment, wellbeing services for patients and their families, and emergency support when hospices have faced unexpected crises.
We work with small community hospices and larger ones. We fund children’s hospices and adult ones. We fund services for people who want to be cared for at home. Every grant we make is targeted where the need is greatest.
But we can only do this because of the generosity of our supporters.
The hospice sector is under more pressure right now than at any point in recent memory. The PAC report, the rising number of empty beds, the staff redundancies – these are not abstract problems. They are things happening to real hospices, serving real communities, right now.
How You Can Help
We won’t beat around the bush. The need today is urgent.
Every donation we receive goes towards grants for hospices. There are no shareholders, no large executive salaries, no overheads swallowing up your money. Just a small, dedicated team – and your support – making a direct difference to the hospices that care for people at the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
If you’ve ever been grateful for the care a hospice gave to someone you loved, or if you simply believe that everyone deserves dignity and compassion at the end of life, please consider making a donation today.
Make a donation. Whether it’s £5 or £500, every pound we receive goes towards supporting hospices when they need it most. A one-off gift helps, and a regular monthly donation – however small – allows us to plan ahead and respond quickly when a hospice comes to us in crisis. You can donate through our website or by post.
Leave a legacy. A gift in your will to Hospice Aid UK is one of the most impactful things you can do. Legacy gifts have sustained our work for over two decades, and they ensure that future generations will have access to the compassionate end-of-life care that everyone deserves.
Fundraise for us. Whether it’s a coffee morning, a sponsored walk, a bake sale, or something entirely different – fundraising events bring communities together and raise vital funds. We’ll support you every step of the way. Get in touch and we’ll send you everything you need to get started.
Spread the word. Share this post. Talk to people about what’s happening. The hospice funding crisis doesn’t get the attention it deserves, and awareness is the first step towards change. If more people understood how hospices are funded – and how close many are to cutting the services that families depend on – we believe more people would want to help.
Consider a corporate partnership. If you’re a business looking for a meaningful charity partner, we’d love to hear from you. Corporate support can make an extraordinary difference, and we’ll work with you to create a partnership that benefits your team, your community, and the hospices that need it.
Why Does The Hospice Funding Crisis Matter To Every Family?
Even a small, regular contribution helps us plan ahead and reach more hospices with the funding they so desperately need. A one-off donation makes an immediate difference. A gift in your will creates a legacy that goes on caring long after you’re gone.
Whatever You Can Give, It Matters. And Right Now, It matters More Than Ever.
At Hospice Aid UK, we’ve spent nearly 25 years making sure hospices can be there when families need them. With your fabulous help, we can keep going.
If you’d like to know more about our work, explore our website or get in touch at info@hospiceaid.org.uk.
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