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Have your say: The impact of financial insecurity in rural areas

  • Area of Work: Policy and Research
  • Type: News Item
  • Published: 7th June 2024
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Share your experience of living with or caring for someone with advanced illness and financial insecurity, particularly in rural areas.

Over 90,000 people in the UK die in poverty. However, little attention has been paid to the lived experience of people living with advanced illness and their families who are living with financial insecurity at the end of life.

Marie Curie have funded a study to explore the lived experiences of people living with advanced illness (including the last year of life) and family carers who are experiencing financial insecurity, particularly in rural, coastal and island communities. They are looking for people to take part in a research project exploring what it is like to live with serious advanced illness when you are also struggling to make ends meet.

Researchers at the University of Glasgow are conducting one-off interviews with people with serious advanced illness/carers of people with serious advanced illness. Interviews can be done in person, by telephone or by video call. Interviews are open to adults over the age of 18, and participants will receive a £25 high street voucher for their time. 

The study seeks to identify how people who are struggling to make ends meet connect with and mobilise supportive resources to support their well-being. This research also aims to provide recommendations for improving the relevance and accessibility of services and resources for people struggling financially when nearing the end of life.

Who can take part

To take part in this study, you must meet the follow criteria:

  1. Living with an advanced illness or is a carer for/has cared for someone with an advanced illness. For example, Cancer, Advanced Heart Illness, Motor Neurone Illness, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Illness (COPD), neurological conditions like Parkinson’s Illness or Multiple Sclerosis, Dementia, or end-stage organ failure.
  2. Struggling to make ends meet and/or is in receipt of means-tested benefits.
  3. Lives in a rural or island community. The Scottish Government defines an area as rural if it is more than a 30-minute drive from a settlement with a population of 10,000 or more.
  4. Over the age of 18 and able to give informed consent.
  5. Willing to discuss the project further with a researcher.

Recruitment for the first phase study will take place until 30 September 2024.

If you would like to take part of have any questions, get in touch Sam.Quinn@Glasgow.ac.uk

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