Guest Blog: The Hidden Cost of Ill Health
When asked whether she’s ever broken any bones, my middle child says, “Yes, two – my brother’s finger and my sister’s ankle!”
We live fairly close to one of the best children’s hospitals in the UK, so when one of my children has a hospital appointment or requires an unexpected visit to the accident and emergency department after an incident on the trampoline, we can jump in the car and drive there without much thought to the cost of the journey.
Many families in the UK do not have that privilege.
Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool has recently developed a tool to look at why children do not attend their appointments, and travel costs are a big factor. Some parents simply cannot afford to get their children to the hospital. This inevitably leads to delays in diagnosis and poorer outcomes for families from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Employment reduces the risk of poverty, but households dealing with disabilities or health challenges face greater barriers to accessing and sustaining work. In January 2026, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reported on the relationship between disability and poverty, highlighting that disabled people have persistently higher poverty rates than non-disabled people, and this gap has proved difficult to shift over time.
The charity Scope uses data from the Family Resources Survey to calculate the extra costs faced by disabled households, the ‘Disability Price Tag’. In their 2025 report, they calculated that households including disabled adults or children needed an extra £1,095 each month on average, just to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households.
In 2024, The King’s Fund reported on the relationship between poverty and NHS services. Their report concluded that ill health causes poverty and living in poverty makes it significantly more challenging for people to access healthcare services. This vicious cycle of unmet healthcare needs widens the gap in health equity.
How can churches help?
Relieving poverty and relieving health challenges can both help to break this cycle, for individuals and generationally. Churches in the UK are well placed to provide support in both of these areas and we are already seeing many churches impact the health of their local communities, for example through foodbanks and community groceries.
Someone Cares
Someone Cares UK links the local church with hospital chaplaincy services to help provide emotional, practical, and spiritual support to patients, their families and the wider hospital community. Our Liverpool project has recently linked in with the Wellbeing Hub at Alder Hey Hospital. The hub supports low-income families accessing care at the hospital, who are struggling to meet the costs of an appointment or admission.
Through Someone Cares, local churches have been able to provide funding for families’ travel costs, plus other things like Christmas gift vouchers. One of our local churches runs a debt advice service, so we have also been able to offer that support to families at Alder Hey who have ended up in financial crisis as a result of a child's ill health.
For example, one family had a mortgage based on two salaries, so when their child required full-time care and one parent had to give up work, they needed advice and assistance to avoid defaulting on their mortgage. We love seeing local churches meeting specific needs for patients and families in their local hospitals, bringing hope into difficult situations.
Getting started
For any church starting to think about the link between poverty and health, start with your own congregation – are there members of your church living with chronic ill health, disability or facing a health crisis? Has anyone asked them about their financial needs or offered assistance?
If you’re interested in serving within a local healthcare setting, Someone Cares would love to help you start a conversation with your local hospital or hospice, about whether you might be able to provide chaplaincy volunteers and practical resources. Or perhaps your local hospital has a Wellbeing Hub like the one at Alder Hey that you could donate to for families in need.
If you would prefer to support the health of your local community in a different way, perhaps your church building could be used as a venue for exercise classes or wellbeing clinics. Other charities and initiatives that look after those facing health challenges include Parish Nursing, Neighbourhood Chaplaincy and Anna Chaplaincy.
When we think about relieving poverty, we need to consider health and disability as one of the reasons why people are living below the poverty line. What could your church do to help narrow the gap in health equity?
Jenni Calcraft
Find out more about Someone Cares UK: HERE
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*Opinions expressed in guest posts are those of the author, and do not represent any official position held by Jubilee+.*