Marie Curie expects to record a third consecutive annual deficit this year but has said it is on track to balance its books as it plans to reduce running costs throughout the organisation.
In the financial year ending March 2024, Marie Curie recorded a £25.9m deficit, an increase from the year before, when it spent £8.8m more than its income.
The charity made 126 employees redundant in 2023-24, up from 66 the year before, as it aims to achieve a surplus within the next three years.
Marie Curie has announced the closure of several services in the past year as contracts have not been renewed by the NHS.
The end-of-life charity said it has continued to review its resources, including staffing, but expects to clear its deficit in the coming years.
Increased redundancies and deficits
Marie Curie has been relying on its reserves to absorb the deficits, with its reserves dipping from £76.5m in 2022 to £75.3m in 2023 to £67.5m in 2024.
Though its total gross income saw a £2.4m growth from 2023 to 2024, its expenditure on raising funds also hiked from £8.3m to £57.5m, a £49.2m increase.
It reported that the fundraising environment continued to be difficult amid high inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.
A spokesperson for the charity told Civil Society that its deficit for 2024-25 will be lower than last year’s.
“We’ve been focused on keeping care provision at previous levels and looking at ways to reduce our operating costs to safeguard care into the future,” it stated in its accounts.
It paid £1.4m in 2023-24 to 126 employees for termination payments, while in 2022-23 it paid £600,353 in termination payments for 66 employees, according to its account filings.
The spokesperson told Civil Society: “Marie Curie, like many charities in the hospice and palliative care sector, is facing significant financial challenges amidst rising costs and reduced funding for services.
“These pressures are compounded by a stretched NHS and the critical need to address inequalities and gaps in care across the whole end-of-life system.
“We are on track to close our planned operating deficit, putting us in a stronger position in future to fund more service innovation.”
The spokesperson said it has taken “significant steps” to reduce costs, including the restructure of central and support functions and “halting or delaying key programmes”.
The spokesperson said: “We continue to review how best to use our finite charitable funds to deliver the greatest impact to the most underserved groups in our local communities.
“We are facing a challenging time, but more to the point so are many people missing out on good end-of-life care.”
Services closing
In Liverpool, the charity temporarily closed a 26-bed hospice unit in July 2024 with no long-term plan to reopen.
At the start of 2025, Marie Curie announced that up to 33 jobs were at risk as a result of the loss of an NHS home care contract after the NHS Dorset Integrated Care Board stated that it would not be renewed after March.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Marie Curie’s nurses and healthcare assistants will stop providing overnight care at home services in some parts of Scotland from April as local contracts come to an end.
The spokesperson told Civil Society: “Like other palliative care charities, we are seeing services being decommissioned or reduced by the NHS.
“This will have a knock-on effect in terms of access to quality end-of-life care and potentially a greater risk of people using emergency and hospital services, which is distressing for everyone.
“The NHS only covered 39% of the costs of our hospices and 48% of our community hospice services in 2023-24, with the remainder funded through charitable donations.
“We will continue to campaign for all governments and the NHS to prioritise and invest in vital palliative and end-of-life care services.”
In November 2024, the charity's chief executive Matthew Reed wrote a public letter to health secretary Wes Streeting stating that the increase to employer national insurance contributions, set to come into force in April this year, is expected to cost Marie Curie an additional £3m in 2025-26 alone.
The letter reads: “Realistically, without further support and faced with significant additional cost pressures through increases in the NHS pay award and employer national insurance contributions – the only option we are left with is reducing the services we deliver.”
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