Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Marie Curie's briefing entitled Dying in Poverty: Improving financial support for terminally ill people with the cost of living, what assessment he has made of that organisation's findings on the potential merits of offering all terminally ill people access to the state pension.

No assessments have been made on early access to the State Pension for terminally ill people.

Hearing that your illness cannot be cured can be a frightening and devastating experience. For those at the end of their life, the Government’s priority is providing financial support quickly and compassionately. The main way that the Department does this is through special benefit rules, sometimes referred to as “the Special Rules”. These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment, serve waiting periods and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit. For many years, the Special Rules have applied to people who have 6 months or less to live and now they are being changed so they apply to people who have 12 months or less to live.