Marie Curie Cancer Care spent £10m more than it earned in the year to March 2014 and expects to make a larger deficit next year, according to its annual report and accounts, filed last week.

The charity, which provides palliative care for people with terminal illnesses, had an income of £155m in the year, an increase of 4 per cent from £149m in the previous year. However it spent £165m, an increase of 13 per cent on the £147m it spent in the previous year.

The charity said the deficit was planned in advance, in response to a difficult voluntary funding environment which made it hard to increase income to keep up with a growing demand for services.

“Marie Curie is budgeting to make a larger deficit in 2014/15 as the demand for its community services is growing at a faster rate than its income,” the charity said in its annual report. “This deficit will need to be funded by the reserves and may continue beyond next year as the economic environment makes securing increases in fundraising difficult to achieve.”

It said that “opportunities to develop services, and the urgent need for this care” were “outpacing growth in fundraising”, and that trustees had decided to invest in “several profitable fundraising areas” with the expectation this would lead to more income over time.

It said it has spent the deficit funding more recruitment of regular donors and more advertising for its Great Daffodil Appeal, as well as improvements to management and infrastructure and a new volunteering project.

The charity currently has reserves of just over £42m, or around three months’ expenditure.

The charity paid 30 individuals more than £60,000, including two who earned between £160,000 and £170,000. It said that of these, six were senior medical practitioners.