I got no inherited wealth either. I worked extremely hard and as a result I am comfortably off and I am not complaining about inheritance tax. Just querying the 5% figure.
I don’t doubt that but I bet there are loads at least £500,000 plus any savings on top of that…
Might be in a pension?
If you die before your 75th birthday and have money in a private pension, that money can be paid to your heirs without attracting any inheritance tax.
Thanks…
Sadly I am rapidly approaching 75 
.
Here is the relevant bit.
Outside the estate
Pensions are considered to be outside of your estate, so beneficiaries can access the retirement savings without paying IHT.
If you are 75 or over when you die, a beneficiary of your pension pot will have to pay income tax on any withdrawals at their marginal rate (i.e. the highest rate of income tax that they pay).
What frequently happens is most people end up in a nursing home where they can recieve care. Those homes need to be far better regulated because they cost an arm and a leg, and are exploitative for people who are vulnerable.
My father in-law was in a home for 6 weeks (palliative care, hallucinating etc) unexpectedly he recovered. Family took him in and cared for him. What no one realised is while he was clearly not in a fit mind (ie the next week power of attorney was signed over to his brother) they got him to sign a document which “held” his room. This basically reserved a spot in case he needed to return. However he ended up living another 2 years……
3 months after his death, we got a bill for £120K basically (most of his estate). For a room he had barely used (no possessions in it), a room that was used by other patients likely the entire time (was during covid). They even charged for the 3 months after his death!!
Fought it for 18 months, notices of debt collectors etc the executor of the will (his brother) gave up to settle the estate. It was giving him to much stress/ grief. Taking up too much time. They were sharks plain and simple.
Care for the elderly/dying is a huge money spinner. Unless the estate has less than something like £20K it’s down to the individual to pay.(recovered from the estate)
So business is looking decent then for @SBYM 
Asylum applications are being processed now, at a decent rate. This wasn’t happening AT ALL under the Tories. As you know I’m no fan of the current Labour gov, but can give credit where it’s due
A quick search suggests that only 10% (48,000) of Maltese use English as their first language as the majority speak Maltese, which is predominantly Arabic in its origin. Further more, if you look at the demographic of the refugees in Malta, apart from Bangladesh where English is still taught, the other countries have a low English speaking population, usually people of wealth.
So, whilst I am not dismissing your logic, could it not be that Malta is one of the first stepping stones to mainland Europe from the North of Africa? Next stop Sicily, then Italy?
I am going to use the highest asylum applications by Nationality to question the English speaking, friends and families stance.
Figures (stats) show that Albanians make up the highest number of asylum seekers, I believe 28%, approx 12,000 (figures from 2022). The Official Albanian population living in the UK is, as of 2021, 100k-140k - and I am taking the highest estimates. Yet, as of 2023 there were 390k Albanians living in Italy - taking the lowest estimate’s, the high estimates are 800k. Taking into consideration that the UK has a larger population than Italy, maths would suggest that there are more Albanians per capita.
Asylum applications made by Albanian nationals 2022, To the UK 15,925, to Italy 1,215. Infact the UK had 9,000 more applicants than France (2nd). So Albanian nationals, rather than seeking asylum in a country they have history with, which has a higher number of Albanian people, and is relatively easy to travel to by land or across the tranquil Baltic Sea. Would prefer to travel half way across Europe, live in a tent in a camp in France, pay monies to smugglers and risk a treacherous journey across the English Channel, in an over crowded dinghy?
I may be missing something here but why???
On a side note, I went on Holiday to Durres, Albania this year and it is a very pretty country with very welcoming people. I would definitely recommend!!
To follow up on my above post.
I actually, genuinely believe in people being able to seek asylum in the UK or any other country but there needs to be a process and unfortunately, I can never see this happening, not just in the UK, but across Europe in general.
I don’t know now, but if you ask any Asians if they have to escape to Europe (not sure we want to do that now) in the past, the UK is always the top in mind for most. The reputation is one thing because we get to see alot of great things about the UK in the news like even football. And English is a great attraction even if you don’t speak it now. Because if you manage to get to the UK, you find work, learn English, get legal residency and with English, there is a chance in future they or their kids can move and work anywhere of their choice.
Yes, I agree.
But they are two different parts of the system, and the small boat crossings will continue as long as there is no safe route to asylum that doesn’t require being on UK land. That’s what this entire country seems to be in denial about.
To simplify things drastically, again I would guess there are a myriad of factors. One is historical hostility of Italians towards Albanians (I can’t seem to find this article at the moment, so disregard this if you wish). Another is again the presence of friends/family here.
As to why else, I’m not sure either.
And that’s the most infuriating part. Anyone who has even thought about this issue for more than a couple of seconds instead of letting their feelings take over the topic will realise that there needs to be a proper mechanism to do so.
Pretending that you can indefinitely keep on turning people away and deporting them is just political short-termism.
But then again, it seems that there are few politicians with actual long-term visions in Europe anyway. And I mean visions as in well-considered, deliberated plans, instead of just mindless Nazi salutes.
Just watched “1979 - Those were the days”
Uncanny resemblence of blundering cluelessness between Callaghan and Starmer.
It’s almost as if we just have a Callaghan reincarnation running the show now.
The Albanian thing is a bit perplexing. I heard Rory Stewart talking about it a while back and he seemed to think there was no humanitarian reason why Albanians would leave the country, but there may be economic ones.
The puzzling thing is why an economic migrant, wanting to work on the black market, would claim asylum as this makes no sense. The last thing an economic migrant without an appropriate visa would want to do is to make themselves known to the authorities.
To escape from exploitation by Human trafficking gangs?
I remember back in the 90’s the ( i think) czech government ran information adverts to encourage its gypsy population to come to the UK and i assume claim asylum.
The whole ‘stop the boats’ thing is a Tory charade, manufactured to take the focus off them stripping public services.
Agree that there needs to be international agreement so there’s some equity in the numbers that different countries are taking. This will result in the UK receiving many more refugees as currently we take much less than France or Germany, and a tiny fraction of Turkey or even Uganda.
We also need politicians to have the courage to ignore right wing/media xenophobia and tell the truth- that migration is beneficial and essential, that we have obligations to support those fleeing persecution, and that there is no such thing as an ‘illegal’ immigrant.
This article suggests that Albanians claiming asylum may occur a lot of the time because they have been picked up by authorites after entering the country illegally ( not intending to claim asylum) and use it as away to try to then avoid deportation.
A higher proportion of successful claims appear to be by women - likely victims of trafficking.
Male claims lower than average success rate.
Slight topic change.
This hypocritical grifter needs to be exposed for what he is. Attended what was basically a right wing boot camp in the US, failed to declare it. The camp is linked to groups associated with Steve Bannon. Independent also reporting it.
Ive heard crime gangs on this. Enter the UK and join gangs already here. No evidence, just a conversation i had.
I think @kopstar was talking about this a couple of years ago. I remember the international figures discussed at the time suggesting Germany was refusing i think pretty much nearly every case from Albania on this basis.
I think there might be some social/non economic factors in play if the coutry’s infrastructure isnt well enough developed.