Government announcement comes as hospices struggle with higher wage bills and national insurance increase

• UK politics live – latest updates

Hospices in England are to receive a £100m-plus boost to funding amid worries that some end-of-life services could close because of the impact of the national insurance increase and wage rises.

The investment, announced in the Commons by the health minister Karin Smyth, was billed as “the biggest investment into hospices and end-of-life care in a generation”.