Is hard to believe but Queen Elizabeth seems to be running out of money. The daily newspaper Telegraph reports that a newly published account reveals the Queen will run out of funds by 2012 unless the government increases the funding for the Royal household for the first time in 20 years.
From the Telegraph: The total cost of keeping the monarchy increased by £1.5 million to £41.5 million [$69.2 million, does not include security] during the last financial year…
The Queen’s Civil List, which pays for the running of the Royal household including staff salaries, was £13.9 million [$22.8 million] but the government provides only £7.9 million which has been frozen since 1991.
The reserve, which was £35 million at its peak, has now dwindled to £14 million and Buckingham Palace estimates it will have disappeared by the end of 2011 when a new Civil List settlement is due to come into effect.
A senior Royal household official told to the paper that on current spending, the Queen will be unable to balance the books in two years time.
“The Queen is naturally very thrifty,” the official told the Telegraph. But accounts show travel expenses for the Royal family rose significantly.
One of the biggest expenses was the cost of Royal travel, up £300,000, to £6.5 million. The figures were swelled by the £1.3 million spent on two overseas trips, to South America and the Far East, by the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. They are the most expensive trips undertaken by members of the Royal Family in modern times.
As the recession persists in Britain tax payers continue to show their displeasure at where their taxes are going.
A breakdown of the figures showed that £9.9 million went on salaries, administration £1.5 million, housekeeping and furnishings £700,000, ceremonial functions £400,000, £1.1 million on catering and hospitality, £600,000 on the garden parties which were attended by 50,000 people.
The money provided by the taxpayer to the Queen is equivalent to 69 pence [$1.13] per person in the country.
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