.png)
6 hours ago
5
Macmillan Cancer Support is to scrap its £14m-a-year specialist advice service, which helps tens of thousands of people every year, in what has been described as a betrayal of vulnerable patients.
Macmillan, one of the UK’s biggest and highest-profile charities, told staff and partners this week it planned to cease funding its specialist benefits advice services at the end of this year.
Its advice services help cancer patients navigate the benefits system to ensure they get financial support if they have to give up work during treatment, as well as help with the extra costs of their illness, such as food, heating and transport.
The latest annual figures from 2022 show the services, operated under contract by 70 local Citizens Advice branches, secured £112m in support for 34,000 cancer patients, at least a quarter of whom were living in poverty, and 40% of whom were pensioners.
The cuts to the services come three months after the Guardian revealed that Macmillan had axed a quarter of its staff to cut costs and scrapped its annual £17m hardship fund, which gave £200 grants to tens of thousands of cancer patients on low incomes.
Macmillan said the current welfare advice arrangements were unaffordable but funding would be extended to the end of May 2026 to enable it and Citizens Advice to “explore options” and identify potential alternative long-term arrangements.
Steven McIntosh, chief partnerships officer at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “We’re proud of the impact achieved through funding of local welfare benefits organisations and advisers, but we are concerned that the way we fund this support cannot meet growing demand and isn’t sustainable.”
Just two years ago a Macmillan report boasted that the charity’s welfare and financial advice services exemplified its “unwavering commitment” to helping cancer patients during their “most vulnerable moments” and had a positive impact on their health.
Two days after partners were told of the latest cuts via webinar, Macmillan Cancer Support attended a reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by King Charles in aid of cancer charities, in which he highlighted the “community of care” of those who helped cancer patients, and praised them for their humanity and expertise.
The cuts were received with shock and anger by welfare advisers, who said the depth and expertise of the service were irreplaceable, while the timing – before the government’s £5bn cuts to disability benefits, which are the single biggest focus of Macmillan-funded welfare support – could not be worse for cancer patients.
One told the Guardian: “If there is one thing worse than having cancer, it’s having cancer with no money. The people who run Macmillan just don’t understand that. They have betrayed everything Douglas Macmillan [who founded the charity 114 years ago] stood for – that those with cancer should not be forced into poverty, but here we are, all those years later, where that is now a reality.”
A former Macmillan staffer who left the charity after their post was cut last year, said: “This has gone down pretty badly among staff. It is well known inside Macmillan just how much of a godsend the welfare advisers are to people with cancer.
after newsletter promotion
“I just don’t understand why they are getting rid of a service that so many thousands of people rely on, while at the same time, hiring senior people on large salaries.
“I get why cuts may have to be made, the climate we are in, but I don’t understand why the welfare advisers are the ones to be cut, why the frontline has to be cut, when there are so many senior people sat in offices discussing strategy and in meetings all day.”
A Citizens Advice spokesperson said: “We are in ongoing discussions with Macmillan to understand the implications of funding changes and how sustainable benefits advice for cancer care patients could be delivered in the future.”
Macmillan has insisted it cannot “keep doing everything we previously did” because in recent years its income – £233m in 2023 – has failed to keep pace with expenditure (£262m in 2023). But critics fear that frontline services for the poorest patients appear to be bearing the brunt of the cuts.
Macmillan-funded Citizens Advice staff are in a number of areas integrated into NHS cancer services and operate directly from hospitals so that patients can ask about money worries in the same place where they are treated. Other charities, such as hospices, also rely on the advisers to support their patients.
