Hospices in England to receive extra £100m – but govt will not say if it covers tax hike
Hospices in England will receive an extra £100m to improve buildings, equipment and accommodation, the government has said.
The government announced the £100m will be given to both adult and child hospices in the new year and will cover until the end of the next financial year in April 2026.
A further £26m will be given to children’s hospices for the 2025/26 year, the government said.
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However, the government refused to say if the funding will cover the extra cost of employers’ national insurance rising from 13.8% to 15%, as announced by the chancellor in October’s budget.
There are about 170 hospices in England that provide end of life care for adults, and about 40 for children and young people, while some hospices provide care to both.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations but receive some statutory funding from the government because they provide NHS services.
The government said the money will go towards refurbishing bedrooms and bathrooms, to provide comfortable overnight facilities for families, and improve IT systems to make it easier for GPs and hospitals to share vital data on patients.
It will also be spent on improving garden and outdoor spaces for patients and their families, and to help develop outreach services to support people in their own homes.
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Hospices face funding crisis
Asked multiple times if the funding will cover the national insurance rise, which charities and voluntary groups have said will cost them £1.4bn, health minister Karin Smyth refused to answer in parliament on Thursday.
She said: “This is a welcome announcement that can be used by the sector to manage some of those pressures and deliver the sorts of services they want to do for the future.”
Dr Caroline Johnson, Conservative shadow health secretary, told MPs Labour is “taking millions of pounds off hospices and palliative care charities, and then think they should be grateful when they give them some of it back”.
At Prime Minister’s Questions this week, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said hospices believe the rise will cost them an extra £30m and asked if the government will be funding them to cover the cost.
Sir Keir Starmer said his government had put “a record amount into the NHS in the budget” and said they would set out funding arrangements “in the new year”.
Care minister Stephen Kinnock said: “I am grateful to NHS staff and voluntary organisations, including hospices, for the deeply compassionate care and support they give to end of life patients and their families.
“The £100m capital investment that the government is announcing today will allow hospices to improve their physical and operational environment, enabling them to provide the best possible care to their patients.”
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Kemi Badenoch asked if hospices would have their employers’ national insurance rise covered
Toby Porter, CEO of Hospice UK, which represents British hospices, said the extra funding will be “hugely welcomed”.
“Hospices not only provide vital care for patients and families, but also relieve pressure on the NHS,” he said.
“This funding will allow hospices to continue to reach hundreds of thousands of people every year with high-quality, compassionate care.
“We look forward to working with the government to make sure everyone approaching the end of life gets the care and support they need, when and where they need it.”
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, marks their 50th birthday amid a year of rising institutional and geopolitical adoption of the world’s first cryptocurrency.
The identity of Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in crypto, with speculation ranging from cryptographers like Adam Back and Nick Szabo to broader theories involving government intelligence agencies.
While Nakamoto’s identity remains anonymous, the Bitcoin (BTC) creator is believed to have turned 50 on April 5 based on details shared in the past.
According to archived data from his P2P Foundation profile, Nakamoto once claimed to be a 37-year-old man living in Japan and listed his birthdate as April 5, 1975.
Source: Web.archive.org
Nakamoto’s anonymity has played a vital role in maintaining the decentralized nature of the Bitcoin network, which has no central authority or leadership.
The Bitcoin wallet associated with Nakamoto, which holds over 1 million BTC, has laid dormant for more than 16 years despite BTC rising from $0 to an all-time high above $109,000 in January.
Satoshi Nakamoto statue in Lugano, Switzerland. Source: Cointelegraph
Nakamoto’s 50th birthday comes nearly a month after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a Digital Asset Stockpile, marking the first major step toward integrating Bitcoin into the US financial system.
Related: Bitcoin at 16: From experiment to trillion-dollar asset
Nakamoto’s legacy: a “cornerstone of economic sovereignty”
“At 50, Nakamoto’s legacy is no longer just code; it’s a cornerstone of economic sovereignty,” according to Anndy Lian, author and intergovernmental blockchain expert.
“Bitcoin’s reserve status signals trust in its scarcity and resilience,” Lian told Cointelegraph, adding:
“What’s fascinating is the timing. Fifty feels symbolic — half a century of life, mirrored by Bitcoin’s journey from a white paper to a trillion-dollar asset. Nakamoto’s vision of trustless, peer-to-peer money has outgrown its cypherpunk roots, entering the halls of power.”
However, lingering questions about Nakamoto remain unanswered, including whether they still hold the keys to their wallet, which is “a fortune now tied to US policy,” Lian said.
Related: Bitcoin’s next catalyst: End of $36T US debt ceiling suspension
Is Satoshi Nakamoto wealthier than Bill Gates?
In February, Arkham Intelligence published findings that attribute 1.096 million BTC — then valued at more than $108 billion — to Nakamoto. That would place him above Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the global wealth rankings, according to data shared by Coinbase director Conor Grogan.
Satoshi’s new addresses. Source: Conor Grogan
If accurate, this would make Nakamoto the world’s 16th richest person.
Despite the growing interest in Nakamoto’s identity and holdings, his early decision to remain anonymous and inactive has helped preserve Bitcoin’s decentralized ethos — a principle that continues to define the cryptocurrency to this day.
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The United States stock market lost more in value over the April 4 trading day than the entire cryptocurrency market is worth, as fears over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to ramp up.
On April 4, the US stock market lost $3.25 trillion — around $570 billion more than the entire crypto market’s $2.68 trillion valuation at the time of publication.
Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market”
Among the Magnificent-7 stocks, Tesla (TSLA) led the losses on the day with a 10.42% drop, followed by Nvidia (NVDA) down 7.36% and Apple (AAPL) falling 7.29%, according to TradingView data.
The significant decline across the board signals that the Nasdaq 100 is now “in a bear market” after falling 6% across the trading day, trading resource account The Kobeissi Letter said in an April 4 X post. This is the largest daily decline since March 16, 2020.
“US stocks have now erased a massive -$11 TRILLION since February 19 with recession odds ABOVE 60%,” it added. The Kobessi Letter said Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement was “historic” and if the tariffs continue, a recession will be “impossible to avoid.”
Source: Anthony Scaramucci
On April 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries.
Trump said the reciprocal tariffs will be roughly half the rate US trading partners impose on American goods.
Related: Bitcoin bulls defend $80K support as ‘World War 3 of trade wars’ crushes US stocks
Meanwhile, the crypto industry has pointed out that while the stock market continues to decline, Bitcoin (BTC) remains stronger than most expected.
Crypto trader Plan Markus pointed out in an April 4 X post that while the entire stock market “is tanking,” Bitcoin is holding.
Source: Jeff Dorman
Even some crypto skeptics have pointed out the contrast between Bitcoin’s performance and the US stock market during the recent period of macro uncertainty.
Stock market commentator Dividend Hero told his 203,200 X followers that he has “hated on Bitcoin in the past, but seeing it not tank while the stock market does is very interesting to me.”
Meanwhile, technical trader Urkel said Bitcoin “doesn’t appear to care one bit about tariff wars and markets tanking.” Bitcoin is trading at $83,749 at the time of publication, down 0.16% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap data.
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