End Cancer’s Hidden Toll

At Mission Remission, we’re fighting for a world where no cancer survivor faces poverty or barriers to work after treatment. Surviving cancer shouldn’t mean sacrificing your career and livelihood.

We hope you’ll add your voice to our call: Let’s end cancer’s hidden toll!

• 93% of survivors continue to face physical and mental health challenges long after treatment ends.
• 75% struggle to return to work, citing poor health & inadequate rehabilitation support as major barriers. Even a decade later, 67% face ongoing challenges.
• 66% face significant income drops - 31% lose over £10,000 annually. Even a decade later,  over half continue to face a drop in income.
• Our community survey of 1,230 people and 95 in-depth case studies reveal systemic failings in support for survivors, leaving many in poverty, unable to rebuild their careers or live fulfilling lives.

Become a Changemaker:

Become a Mission Remission member:

If you’d like to chat, drop Laura an email on: laura@mission-remission.org.uk

Five Calls for Change

1.Provide Tailored Psychological Support

Call: One-to-one counselling or therapy should be offered when treatment ends or upon returning to work. 

Why:

• 51% of survivors find the lack of psychological support is a barrier to work.
• The end of treatment often feels like a "cliff’s edge," where clinical support disappears, leaving survivors struggling to process their experience, make decisions about the future, and regain confidence.
• Cancer leaves deep psychological scars, yet survivors report feeling abandoned:

2. Pause Benefits for Five Years Post-Treatment

Call: Pause benefits for five years after survivors return to work, with automatic reinstatement if illness recurs. 

Why:

• Returning to work is often a financial risk for cancer survivors. For 51% of benefit recipients, fear that cancer would return and that it would be hard to re-claim benefits, discouraged them from re-entering the workforce.
• People have significant anxiety that benefits will not be returned if their cancer comes back. Benefit decisions can take up to two years and people do not have the confidence in decision-makers deeming them ‘sick enough’ to receive enhanced benefits. Pausing rather than ending benefits reduces this risk.

3. Simplify and Strengthen the Financial Safety Net

Call: Create a streamlined, automatic financial support system that includes:

• Clear, accessible information on available support, all in one place

• Free lifetime prescriptions and automatic financial aid for people with cancer.

• Advocacy support for navigating complex welfare systems. 

Why: 88% of people who applied for benefits felt the process could be improved. They found it daunting and complex. 37% received no support to navigate the welfare system, leaving them ‘fending for themselves’ and confused about what they were entitled to.

Society assumes the welfare system supports people with cancer, yet of the 75% of people who received some form of benefit, only 18% received Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the main disability payment.

The low numbers receiving PIP may be due to systemic barriers. The welfare system relies on people understanding it, sharing the right experiences in the right way, and jumping through application hoops. It also requires clinicians to substantiate claims, often a challenge in itself.

These barriers leave people without the benefits they desperately need. This is why financial support would be better provided automatically, where needed, with an advocate available to guide people through the process.

4. Train Benefits Advisors to Understand Cancer’s Long-Term Impact

Call: Develop a co-designed framework for benefits advisors, recognising cancer’s physical and psychological toll.

Why:

• 87% of applicants report that advisors misunderstood the holistic effects of cancer, relying on outdated clinical evidence. For example, we’ve seen DWP letters stating cancer survivors stop experiencing fatigue after two years.
• 66% face significant income drops - 31% lose over £10,000 annually.
• 93% of cancer survivors experience long-term challenges and yet people tell us that society and the welfare system do not understand and do not recognise the holistic impact of invasive surgeries, organ removals, and psychological trauma on people’s lives and livelihoods.

5. Promote Financial Preparedness in General Population

Call: Nobody expects to get cancer, but half of us do. We encourage everyone to consider how they might cope financially if unable to work for six months or longer. Avenues to explore might include (with careful reading of exclusions – as it differs significantly from one insurer to the next):

a)    Employer-provided income protection plans

b)    Personal insurance for critical illness, whether that’s an income or a substantial lump sum payment

c)     Ill-health pension arrangements (sometimes applicable for those with a public sector pension)

Why:

There was an almost universal recognition that the welfare system is insufficient support when facing cancer.

• We found those with financial protections, like income protection or insurance payouts, or those who received fully paid salaries for 6-12 months, were better equipped for recovery.
• Self-employed and zero-hours contract workers are particularly vulnerable, with 85% of self employed people experiencing income loss after cancer.
• People questioned why the government mandates workplaces offering pensions, but has not yet taken similar steps to promote or mandate critical illness cover.
• Many stressed the importance of understanding policy exclusions. These types of policies often included a complicated number of inclusions that are not always shared with employees if they opt-in for illness cover. Some policies only pay out if people face non-treatable cancers and are deemed permanently unfit for work.

The Big Figures

Our community survey of 1,230 people and 95 in-depth case studies reveal systemic failings in support for survivors, leaving many in poverty, unable to rebuild their careers or live fulfilling lives.

Lack of Support

• 93% of survivors continue to suffer physical and mental health challenges long after treatment ends.
• 75% struggle to return to work, citing poor health & inadequate rehabilitation support as major barriers. Even a decade later, 67% face ongoing challenges

·       51% felt that psychological support would help them return to work and build a ‘new normal’.

Financial Impact

·       66% said their income had decreased following cancer, with 31% telling us that their income had decreased by over £10,000 per year.

·       People who shared positive stories with us usually involved critical illness cover.

Benefit Challenges

·       Only 18% of people with cancer received PIP, despite 69% applying for benefit support.

·       87% of applicants report that advisors misunderstood the holistic effects of cancer, relying on outdated clinical evidence.

·       88% of people who applied for benefits felt the process could be improved. People found support and information piecemeal.

·       People found that clinicians did not provide appropriate information to DWP so that benefits are approved.

·       51% of people felt that their decision about when/ if they returned to work was impacted by the fear that cancer would come back and then it would be hard to claim benefits or take time off work again.

Add your email to join our changemakers:

Become a Mission Remission member:

If you’d like to chat, drop Laura an email on: laura@mission-remission.org.uk