Meeting of the Parliament 06 November 2025
I thank Paul Sweeney for again securing a debate on this important subject. I have spoken in previous years’ debates on the issue, and it saddens me that, once again, we need to raise our voices to speak out for those who are dying in poverty.
This year’s report tells us that we have not moved the dial one bit, so all our efforts must remain focused not on talk, reports or briefings but on the delivery of services and the redistribution of wealth. My colleague Richard Leonard put that so much better than I have done. The issue is about how, as a society, we can redistribute wealth and power.
As with so many things that we encounter in the course of our lives, the process of death is influenced by the poverty and inequality that are experienced by so many. That one in four working-age people and one in six older people still die in poverty should shame us all. I have said this before in the chamber, but I feel compelled to say it again: everyone deserves as pain-free and peaceful a death as possible, surrounded by those who love them, in a place that comforts them and that they have chosen.
Little attention is paid to working people and the strain that often comes with working multiple jobs or living in forgotten communities. What makes me say that? I grew up in a coalfield community. It is almost 40 years since the rapid closure of the mining industry began in coalfield communities in the South Scotland region, yet we are still seeing the consequences. Figures that I found last year suggest that 44 per cent of the working-age population in the Scottish coalfields are claiming some form of benefits, compared with a Scottish average of 23 per cent; 40 per cent of people in the Scottish coalfields have no qualifications, compared with a figure of 27 per cent for Scotland as a whole; and the mortality rate in the Scottish coalfields is 25 per cent higher than the Scottish average. That is why I feel that we do not prioritise the issue enough.
Poverty is the root of the injustice that permeates our society, and that injustice is often suffered from the cradle to the grave. I simply cannot accept that, which is what has driven me to speak in today’s debate. We must do more to stop so many having so little while the few have so much. The reality is that, at the end of life, the rich can often afford to stay at home and receive direct daily care in the places where they have lived and prospered. At a time of their choosing, they can move to a place that is more suitable to support them. However, for those who have suffered through a life of struggling to make ends meet, often, no such options exist. Their lives end, as they proceeded, with a sense of powerlessness.