Category Archives: Death

55 homeless children die in the UK as a result of government policy

Not coming back: in deference to good taste, it seemed reasonable to run an image of a child running away down a back alley, as symbolic of those who have left us and are not coming back because of government policies on poverty and homelessness.

Today (March 5, 2024), This Site published an article about the starvation of children in Gaza, quoting the famous line that if you want to know what politicians would do to you if they could get away with it, look what they support abroad.

Here’s what they are getting away with, here in the UK:

In that other article, I made reference to the late Tony Benn’s words: “The way governments treat refugees is the way they would treat the rest of us if they could get away with it.”

It seems that, here in the UK, they are getting away with it.

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

DWP secretly weakened guidance on suicides after public pledge | Disability News Service

Why would a government organisation secretly weaken its own rules on when to investigate deaths on its watch?

Doesn’t that imply a guilty conscience?

Here’s Disability News Service:

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has secretly weakened its own rules on when it should investigate the deaths of benefit claimants who take their own lives.

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!

Four years ago, the department told the National Audit Office (NAO) that it would always carry out one of its secret reviews when it heard of a claimant’s death if they had died by suicide, even if there were no allegations that DWP’s actions had contributed to that death.

New figures obtained by DNS through a freedom of information (FoI) request show that on at least four occasions in 2022-23, the department failed to investigate when told of the suicide of a claimant.

When asked by DNS why these four suicides had not led to an investigation, a DWP spokesperson said the criteria [were] changed in April 2021, a year after it informed NAO that all suicides of claimants it heard about should lead to an internal process review (IPR) “regardless of whether there are allegations of Department activity contributing to the claimant’s suicide”.

This week’s admission suggests that DWP has taken a significant backward step in addressing the serious and continuing risk to the lives of disabled people, particularly those who pass through its disability assessment systems.

Source: DWP secretly weakened guidance on suicides, one year after public pledge – Disability News Service


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Woman took her own life hours before DWP agreed long-delayed PIP claim | Disability News Service

It’s 11 years – possibly more – since This Site started campaigning for an end to the senseless deaths of sick and disabled benefit claimants… and they are still dying due to Tory ignorance and cruelty:

A young disabled woman took her own life nine months after submitting an application for a disability benefit, which was finally awarded just hours after she died, an inquiry by a committee of MPs has been told.

The Commons work and pensions committee has been told how the 24-year-old’s claim had been held up for months because of flaws within the application process.

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!

Her mother has told the committee that the “mental health impact” of the “hurdles” in the application process “should not be underestimated”.

Her evidence again raises serious concerns about flaws and delays within the personal independence payment (PIP) system.

Following her death, DWP identified numerous errors in how her claim had been dealt with, according to the statement.

Disability Rights UK [has] called for a public inquiry to “learn the truth about what has happened in cases of benefit related deaths and serious harm”.

Source: Young woman took her own life hours before DWP finally agreed long-delayed PIP claim – Disability News Service


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Would the UK have a labour shortage if the Tories hadn’t killed so many of us?

Too few workers: but with low wages, reduced access to healthcare and rising stress-related mental illness, why would anybody want a job in the UK?

It would be funny if it were not so tragic.

The Conservative government is not happy because there is a labour shortage in the UK.

The last figures This Writer has seen suggest that businesses need an extra million workers.

It would be easy to blame Brexit for the shortfall, and there is certainly an argument that sending migrant workers back to their own countries has been a bad idea.

But there’s also the fact – fact, mark you – that the Conservative governments of 2010 onwards have been killing off working-age people at an astonishing rate. This is not a reference to Covid, but to actual, premeditated Tory policy.

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!

The ever-excellent Prem Sikka made this point in a House of Lords debate on the subject:

He had previously posted this on ‘X’:

The article to which he links provides all the information you need:

People in secure and well paid jobs are more likely to have a longer life expectancy and take less time off work due to sickness. This can swell the size of the work force, but the government has pushed real wage cuts with claims that wage increases for workers are inflationary though that logic is suspended for executives and bankers. The average real wage has remained mostly unchanged since 2007.

The annual UK median wage is around £29,669.  The Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates that a single person needs to earn £29,500 a year to reach a minimum acceptable standard of living. A couple with two children need to earn £50,000 between them. This means that nearly half the working population does not reach the minimum standard of living though low incomes can be supplemented by means-tested social security systems. 17.8m adults have income of less than £12,570. Indeed, due to low pay more people in work are claiming social security benefits than those out of work.

The result is that some 14.4 million people live in poverty. Millions of people are deprived of good food, housing, education, clothing, skills and healthcare. Deprived people cannot work long hours or fulfil their potential. More workers report sick and have mental and physical health problems. More than 800,000 patients were admitted to hospital with malnutrition and nutritional deficiencies last year. Some 16m people have disabilities which may affect their participation in labour markets. The government is considering withdrawing benefits from the old, sick and disabled and force them to work, but it is hard to see how that will deal with systemic problems.

Rather than improving healthcare, the government has reduced access to healthcare. People struggle to get access to NHS dentists and family doctors. Some 6.39 million individuals in England alone are waiting for 7.6m hospital appointments. That is one-in-nine persons. Around 2.8 million people, roughly equivalent to the populations of Bournemouth, Cardiff, Coventry, Edinburgh Stoke-on-Trent and Middlesbrough, combined, are suffering from chronic health conditions and are unable to work. More than 500,000 under-35s in the prime of their life are out of work due to long-term illness.

A 2023 study reported in the 5 years to 2022 nearly 1.5 million people in England died whilst waiting for a NHS hospital appointment – that is nearly 300,000 a year.  A 2022 study reported that between 2012 and 2019, government imposed austerity caused 335,000 excess deaths in England and Scotland i.e. nearly 48,000 a year. One-third of these deaths were among people under 65. Another study estimated that between 2011 and 2020, 1.2m people in England died prematurely from a combination of poverty, austerity and Covid. The Government’s obsession with austerity, wage cuts and defunct economic theories has turned the state into a killing machine, and is a major cause of labour shortages.

The article is well worth reading as it covers other reasons for the labour shortage – all of which are down to government policy, inactivity or incompetence.

This Site has been warning that government policy kills since it was founded in 2011 – but at successive elections, the Tories have been voted back in.

So the logical conclusion is that the people of the UK are happy to be deprived of the healthcare to which we all contribute via our taxes, happy to be starved of food, housing and education, and happy to be driven into mental illness by the stress that all this causes.

Are we?

Or have we all been misled, time and again, by politicians with undeclared interests in keeping us down, along with their client media?

With a general election coming up soon, isn’t it time we gave up listening to the public relations people and started to check for ourselves what we are really being offered?

The people of Rochdale could use their by-election as an example for the rest of us.


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

The double-standard of western media that treat Palestinians as sub-human

An injuried girl lies on the floor of Nasser Hospital in Gaza on January 22: apparently what happens to her isn’t anything like as important as what happens to the Israeli troops who attacked her because she is Palestinian, and Palestinians don’t matter. Why is that?

You are being misled by the mainstream media into believing that every Israeli death in Gaza is a tragedy but Palestinians are sub-human and their deaths are unimportant.

Hopefully, This Site will be able to redress the balance a little – with your help. Please share articles like this on the social media so your friends and contacts can understand the real situation.

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!

Here’s an article from Declassified, explaining the difference between the handling of Israeli and Palestinian deaths:

Twenty-four Israeli soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in Gaza on 22 January. Mainstream media outlets around the world reacted in unison: that this was the “deadliest day” for Israel since 7 October.

This exact phrase was used in headlines on 23 January carried by news agencies such as Reuters and AFP, and major broadcasters including the BBC, CBS, NBC, CNN, ABC and ITV News.

The exact same phrase was also used by leading news titles including the New York TimesWashington PostWall Street JournalTime magazine, Daily Telegraph, the Sun, Jerusalem PostGuardian, London’s Evening StandardFinancial TimesIndependent and Yahoo News.

On the same day, Israeli forces killed almost 200 Palestinians in Gaza including at least 65 people in Khan Younis alone.

These deaths received no headlines in the above outlets. Where they were reported, they were listed as part of the regular daily round-up of events in an unfolding genocide that has now seen more than 26,000 people killed in Gaza.

How is it possible that the world’s media could embrace exactly the same phrase in relation to Israeli victims but largely ignore the identities of the much higher number of Palestinians killed?

Why would 22 January be described as “deadly” for one group of people but not for another?

Please read the rest of the article and tell us all why you think it is.

Source: For western media, Israel’s bombing of Gaza is not ‘deadly’


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

US government’s hypocrisy over the deaths of journalists in Gaza and elsewhere

Wael Al-Dahdouh: Isrealis murdered this journalist’s family and then shot him. He is still alive, though.

This Site has accumulated a huge amount of information on the genocide in Gaza that I’ve been unable to publish as stories with my own opinion of them – due to time constraints.

Rather than leave them unseen, I’ve decided to publish them – with a caveat that it is up to you to decide what you make of them.

So:

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

More than a million are dead in UK because of avoidable social/economic inequalities

Hospital ward: what sends people here to die? Avoidable social and economic inequalities, apparently.

1,213,949 people’s lives were cut short between 2011 and 2020 in 90 per cent of areas in England, as a result of avoidable social and economic inequalities – according to analysis by the Institute of Health Equity.

Austerity and regressive funding cuts harmed health and worsened health inequalities well before the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the decade was marked by stalling life expectancy (declining for women living in the 10 percent most deprived areas).  

The IHE believes that not only is health the foremost concern of individuals, communities and businesses, but it is also an indicator of how well a nation is performing.

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!

The UK is now well below the EU average for how long people can expect to live in good health. The UK’s rankings have gone down since 2014. 

While healthcare is important in treating ill health, the causes of ill health lie in the conditions in which people are born, grow, live work and age. These conditions have deteriorated and resulted in worse health and shorter lives. 

IHE Director Sir Michael Marmot says we know what to do to improve health and reduce health inequalities – now we need politicians to act.

While there has been a lack of effective policies nationally, there has been local action. The IHE is working with over 40 local authoritieshealth care organisationsbusiness and voluntary sector. 

And it has set up a UK-wide Health Equity Network to help organisations and localities share best practice on implementing the evidence on reducing health inequalities. 

Sir Michael has published an open lettercalling on politicians to give us hope for a better future. 

The letter states:

The central plank of the next government must be to prioritise everyone’s health by implementing policies we know will reduce health inequalities.

As most of our health is determined by our social circumstances, health equity and well-being must be put at the heart of all policies:
• Develop a national health inequalities strategy for action based on the following eight objectives:
1. Give every child the best start in life.
2. Enable all children, young people and adults to maximise their
capabilities and have control over their lives.
3. Create fair employment and good work for all.
4. Ensure a healthy standard of living for all.
5. Create and develop healthy and sustainable places and communities.
6. Strengthen the role and impact of ill health prevention.
7. Tackle racism, discrimination and their outcomes.
8. Pursue environmental sustainability and health equity together.
• Appoint an independent Health Equity Commissioner.
• Establish a new cabinet-level health equity and well-being cross-departmental committee.
• Ensure every place and local government in the UK is set up and funded to prioritise equity of health and well-being

Is this a good time to remind you that we can have anything we want. The UK is the world’s fifth-richest economy, so the money is there.

What’s lacking is the will to put it into what we need.

Do you think politicians will pay any attention to this?

Source: Taking Action – IHE


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Less-trained ‘physician associates’ are taking over from doctors – because they’re cheaper

Physician associate: training for these not-doctors is cropping up all over the place (this is at Chester University).

If you fall ill or are injured, would you like to be treated by a proper doctor – or would you accept treatment by a so-called ‘physician associate’ who is far less well-trained, but cheaper, and whose employment is intended to make a bigger profit for private health companies?

Here’s Damo to explain what this latest healthcare nightmare is all about:

Already two deaths have been linked to PAs. This means the Tories have intended to make those deaths possible.

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!

And Labour too – because PAs appear to be part of Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting’s plan for the NHS. They certainly didn’t lift a finger to stop them becoming part of your future – if you have a future at all under the ministrations of these not-doctors.

Don’t just take Damo’s word on this. Here’s an actual doctor:

You have your instructions!

Please tell your MP you want the NHS to be staffed with proper doctors – and if private companies don’t want to spend the money, they shouldn’t be part of the service. You can find out how to get in touch here.


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Anti-vaxxers angry after study shows jabs could have prevented 7,000 Covid hospital admissions and deaths

Research published in The Lancet shows that 7,180 hospital admissions and deaths could have been prevented if people had received all their Covid-19 vaccinations.

The study links gaps in vaccine coverage of younger people, men, those in areas of higher deprivation, and people of non-white ethnicity with hospitalisations and deaths.

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!

But when the size of the group failing to receive vaccinations is compared with the number of hospitalisations and deaths, there may be merit in anti-vaxxer anger at the findings.

Experts found that between a third and a half of people had not had the recommended number of Covid vaccinations and boosters by 1 June, 2022: almost 27 million people in England alone.

The study looking at the whole UK population warned that gaps in vaccine coverage drove 7,180 hospital admissions and deaths during the summer of 2022.

There has been a backlash on the social media:

For the sake of balance, let’s remind ourselves:

Source: Covid jabs could have prevented 7,180 summer hospital admissions and deaths, study shows | The Independent


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Cost of dying reaches record high in UK – and here’s a practical example of help

If you don’t have £10,000 saved up to pay for the cost of your own death, your survivors will be stuck with a hefty bill, it seems.

Here’s The Independent:

According to SunLife’s annual report looking at the growing expenses for the bereaved, the average cost has soared to £9,658. This figure, which includes the price of a funeral, professional fees and other send-off costs, is the highest in the 20 years SunLife has been tracking them.

A basic funeral in the UK, which includes a burial or cremation, all funeral director fees, a mid-range coffin, one funeral limousine, as well as doctor and celebrant fees, have increased to £4,141 from £3,953 last year.

A hike in send-off costs to £2,768 and in professional fees to £2,749 means the overall cost of dying is up £458 year on year.

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!

The pressure of rising funeral costs has left one in five families experiencing “notable financial concerns”.

Among these, three-quarters of people reported that paying for the funeral impacted their mental health, and two-thirds experienced an impact on their physical health.

Now let’s hear from Susan Bradley, who lost both her mother and sister within 10 months – as also reported in The Independent:

The 51-year-old from Birmingham was devastated when her mother passed away on 9 June 2022 following a stroke and further complications.

The emotional distress of her grief was only intensified by the stress of having to scrape together money for the funeral costs.

The total expenses with Central Co-op Funeral amounted to £4,800, which was to be split between six relatives.

The 51-year-old said she had to be “extra careful” with money and was forced to neglect some of her long-standing payments.

After struggling through her mother’s funeral costs, Ms Bradley was faced with another tragedy – her sister’s sudden passing at the age of 37 in April last year.

The bill for her sister’s funeral increased by £1,000 from that of her mother’s the previous year.

Here comes the helpful bit:

With her carer’s allowance her only income, plus the additional costs of taking in her sister’s two children, Ms Bradley reached out for help to cover the costs of the funeral.

She googled until she found Down to Earth, a UK-wide helpline offering advice and practical support to people struggling with funeral costs.

Down to Earth made an application for Ms Bradley to charity Turn2us who awarded the family £1,980 towards the funeral. They also directed Ms Bradley to Teaching Staff Trust, who provide hardship grants to help people in or previously involved in the education sector through times of financial trouble.

The trust helped the family cover the majority of the remaining expenses of the funeral, significantly reducing the burden for Ms Bradley’s family.

According to the article, people facing spiralling funeral costs are increasingly failing to either heat or eat. They find they are unable to do what the deceased person wanted or what they feel is right to honour that person and it makes some people mentally, emotionally, and physically very ill.

With government help dwindling down to nothing, in real terms – and no surprises there – it is fortunate that these charitable organisations exist to pick up the slack.

But how many of us even know they exist? And will demand for their help rocket beyond their ability, now that we know they do?

Source: Sunlife report: Cost of dying reaches record high in UK, new report reveals | The Independent


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook