A woman whose father was initially denied personal independence payments (PIP) after he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer is leading calls for the Government to improve access to benefits for people with life-limiting and terminal illnesses.
Ministers are being asked to widen the eligibility criteria for fast-tracked access to payments.
End-of-life charity Marie Curie and King’s College London (KCL) have revealed that thousands of terminally ill people are missing out on vital financial support.
Their research found uncertainty around prognosis, and low awareness of benefits rules, were among the barriers that mean some eligible people do not get the help they need.
Amy Bassinder, from Barnsley, said it was “heartbreaking” to watch her father Neil continue working as a self-employed plumber after diagnosis because he felt he had no other choice.
To help make ends meet, Neil withdrew money from his private pension, while his wife continued to work and used affordable food schemes. He did not receive PIP until just six weeks before his death in July 2025.
Neil was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in 2019, aged 56. He applied for PIP in 2022 because he needed financial support as he underwent chemotherapy alongside other treatments, but initially, his application was rejected.
PIP is a non-means-tested disability benefit to help people with the extra costs of living and getting around, including those with cancer.
If someone has less than 12 months to live, they can apply for PIP under the Special Rules for End of Life, which fast-tracks benefits access without a face-to-face assessment.
Marie Curie is calling on the Government to consider removing the current 12-month prognosis requirement, and introducing a more flexible definition of terminal illness, following the approach taken in Scotland.
Amy, 30, said: “There was enormous pressure on [my father] to keep working while he had cancer when really he shouldn’t have been. He was fitting bathrooms and putting more stress on his body as a self-employed plumbing and gas engineer.
“Day after day he’d go out to work, unless he felt really awful. Even then, he’d still go out, spend all day at work and be in pain.”
At the start of 2025, months before his death, Neil’s health deteriorated further, but without the additional financial support of PIP, he continued to work a day or two when he could.
Amy attributes the success of the second PIP application to hospital staff completing and submitting the SR1 form – the required documentation for rapid access to benefits – on her father’s behalf.
“He died on 13 July 2025. It was around the end of April or beginning of May 2025 when we were told there was nothing more they could do, and it was in June that he finally received his PIP payment,” Amy said.
‘There should be a better safety net’
Amy said a better system should be in place for people with terminal or life-limiting illnesses, or those going through harsh medical treatments.
“If you’re having treatment, you often can’t work. There should be a better safety net,” she added.“It’s so hard to get PIP now. If Dad had really wanted to challenge the [initial] decision, he’d have had to go through an appeals process. Who, with stage 4 cancer or while going through chemotherapy, wants the stress of that?
“No one should have to spend the final years of their life worrying about money, navigating complicated benefit systems or fighting to prove how ill they are.”
Of Neil’s stage 4 diagnosis, Amy said: “It was always terminal, but we were never specifically told he was dying or that he was at the end of life until really late on.”
Healthcare professionals told Marie Curie-funded researchers that uncertainty around prognosis can make it harder to identify eligible patients and complete SR1 forms.
Earlier findings from Marie Curie research showed more than one in three people (34 per cent) who died from a chronic illness in England and Wales did not receive the non-means-tested disability benefits they were entitled to under the Special Rules for End of Life – the equivalent of around 120,000 people.
Dr Sam Royston, the charity’s executive director of research and policy, said: “The Department for Work and Pensions must urgently ensure people at the end of life can quickly access benefits through the special rules, including by ensuring a wider range of clinicians can confirm eligibility for this.
“Healthcare professionals also need the training, support and resources required to make conversations about financial support a routine part of care.”
Dr Joanna Davies is a research fellow at the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation at KCL. She said that while the Government is clear that there are no negative consequences for health staff if a patient claims under the special rules and lives longer than 12 months, health professionals worry about this, and policy changes could address this barrier.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We are sorry to hear about this situation. We are committed to supporting people nearing the end of life. Our Special Rules for End of Life enable people to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend an assessment or serve waiting periods, and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit.
“Since changes in 2023, thousands of people nearing the end of life are now able to claim fast-tracked financial support from the benefits system six months earlier than they were able to previously.”
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