MORE than 210 in Carlisle died whilst living in poverty in 2019 according to new figures.

Hundreds of people die in poverty in Carlisle every year and the findings could be an 'underestimate' according to research by Loughborough University, undertaken before the Covid-19 pandemic and cost-of-living crisis.

Research suggests 210 people in Carlisle died in 2019 having experienced poverty in the last year of their life – around 18 per cent of the total number of deaths.

Of the 210 deaths in poverty in Carlisle in 2019, 165 are estimated to be pensioners and 45 working age.

The figures were among 14,565 annual deaths in poverty across the North West, and almost 93,000 throughout the whole of the UK.

Deborah Earle, cabinet member for public health and community services on the county council, said: "Those figures are obviously upsetting, but we are in a really difficult situation at the minute and I can only imagine that these figures are going to get worse.

READ MORE: Anti-PC comedian tells of murder and forgiveness ahead of Carlisle show

"There's quite a few different issues, but the rise in prices, the energy prices and food prices, with wages not going up, people are struggling coming out of a pandemic and my worry is it's bad enough now but on October 1 when energy prices rise again it's going to be even worse, that worries me desperately."

Julie Wedgwood, project manager with the Rural Regeneration Unit, who introduced Fare Share throughout Cumbria thinks that ‘the situation is much worse now’.

She said: “Whilst these figures are shocking to the general pubic and deeply saddening it does not come as a surprise to people like us working on the front line trying to fight poverty on a daily basis.

“The scarier element of these figures is that they are from 2019 and from what we are seeing on the ground the situation is much worse now with many families who back then were just about getting by finding themselves on the breadline and can see no light at the end of the tunnel.

“What we try and do with Fare Share and our organisation is support these people living in poverty, however the situation is becoming much more difficult day by day due to a much greater demand for support and people who have been service users for a number of years needing a greater amount of help, it truly is shocking and unbelievable in the sixth wealthiest economy in the world.”

READ MORE: Controversial Carlisle housing plan approved