NI cancer victims not claiming benefits

Cancer sufferers in Northern Ireland are twice as likely to claim disability benefits than someone living in Scotland, but millions of pounds remain unclaimed.

This is according to a report by leading cancer care charity Macmillan Cancer Relief, which revealed that more than £126.5 million in disability benefits is going unclaimed by people diagnosed with terminal cancer in the UK.

The charity also expressed concern that thousands of cancer patients are not claiming benefits to which they are entitled through lack of information, confusion or embarrassment.

Peter Cardy, Chief Executive, Macmillan Cancer Relief, said: "Our findings are just the tip of the iceberg. Cancer can have an enormous impact on someone's income. They can plummet from a comfortable lifestyle to one of real financial difficulty.

"It is appalling that people affected by cancer are faced with the unacceptable extra stress and worry of money problems when they are most vulnerable - especially when that help does exist if only they knew about it."

Other key highlights of 'the unclaimed millions' revealed that more than half of people with cancer (83,000) who die each year (154,000) do not claim their entitled disability benefits.

There is also a huge variation in take-up across the UK with Scotland having the lowest claim rate overall at 64%.

Low take-up of disability benefits by people affected by cancer is due to issues such as the perceived stigma of claiming benefits from the state and the complicated and confusing claiming process.

(MB)