New data reveals hundreds of people in Falkirk 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 247 people in Falkirk died in 2019 having experienced poverty in the last year of their life – around 14 per cent of the total number of deaths in the area.

A total of 165 are estimated to be pensioners and 82 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.

Matthew Reed, chief executive of the charity, 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.

"But for 90,000 people a year that is their reality.

"We are staggered to see the scale of poverty among dying people – it is shocking."

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

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.”