Probate ? Massive Increase In Charges On The Way For Some ! Sneaked In Through The Back Door

Benefits, finances and funding
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_Fury over " Sneaky " £6,000 death tax set to hit almost 300,000 families after Ministers classed it as a " Fee " in alleged bid to avoid Parliamentary scrutiny.

**Families could face bill of £6,000 for legal control over deceased person’s estate.

Labour’s Gloria De Piero said that the charges were a " Tax on grieving families. "

Ministry of Justice could rake in an extra £185m a year from charges by 2022/23.**_




**_Currently, families pay a flat £215 fee for probate, the charge for securing legal control over a deceased person’s estate.

But under the new system, the charge will rise according to the value of the estate. It is estimated 280,000 families a year will have to pay more, with 56,000 facing bills of between £2,500 and £6,000.

The Ministry of Justice is expected to rake in an extra £185 million a year from the charges by 2022/23.

Usually, a tax rise would be introduced in a Parliamentary Bill, which would have to go through a committee stage, after which it would be debated – and then voted on – by both the House of Commons and the Lords._**


More on this one when one of the more serious newspapers pick it up.

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**Probate fees hike delayed.

Many bereaved families will have more time to apply for probate at a lower cost, as the Government’s planned fees hike has been delayed and the date for it to come into force has not yet been set.** >

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In November, the Government announced that probate fees - paid when administering someone’s estate after they die - would be paid as a sliding scale depending on the value of the estate, rather than a flat fee, in England and Wales from April.

The changes will abolish probate fees for estates worth less than £50,000, but will mean a fee increase for any estates worth more than this, with a rise of almost £6,000 for estates worth over £2 million.

However, the Ministry of Justice has told MoneySavingExpert that the new fee structure will NOT come into force from 1 April as planned, and will be delayed by at least three weeks. This is because the changes still need to be approved by Parliament - but no date has yet been set for this to happen.

The Government says it will bring the changes before the House of Commons as soon as Parliamentary scheduling allows it to. But in the meantime, some bereaved families could avoid higher fees by applying for probate now, before the new cost structure is approved.

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Fast on the heels of the recently announced price hike and … what a surprise ?

Grieving families face lengthy waits for probate : Technical glitches and a rush to beat fee hikes are creating a backlog, warn lawyers.

**_Grieving families are facing lengthy waits to apply for probate, delaying them taking an important step to gain control over an estate after someone dies.

Lawyers and other inheritance professionals say the usual 10-day process has extended to seven or eight weeks, and 11 in some cases, after an official overhaul.

The logjam is being worsened by people rushing applications to avoid pending hikes to probate fees.

These will rise from £215 to £6,000 on the largest estates, though many inheriting modest assets will pay nothing or much smaller sums._**

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Bereaved families STILL face massive probate delays after months of chaos and there’s no firm start date for fee hikes of up to 2,700%.

_Relatives face waits of 12-14 weeks when applying for probate.

Probate service saw a surge in applications ahead of fee rises of up to 2,700%.

It’s also in the midst of a drastic overhaul involving staff cuts, office closures, new IT systems and changes to work processes.

Government says : " Delays to probate applications are steadily decreasing. "

This is Money reported in May that technical glitches and a rush to beat fee hikes were creating a backlog._

Bereaved families STILL face massive probate delays after months of chaos | Daily Mail Online