Seriously thinking about leaving the UK

has 4 kids and gets over £3k a month
With fewer and fewer young people willing to have children we will soon have to pay people a wage of at least a grand a week to have even one child!

We’re planning to leave the UK once DC finish school (3 years to go). My DH is not originally from UK, has lived in a number of different countries in 20s (as have I) so planning to go to his home country and other nearby countries where we have family and then move around a bit. He can speak 6 languages, I can speak his native language but would need to learn others (just have very basic level). We already have property in his home country but planning to invest in more in two other nearby EU countries although not completely decided. I can apply for the passport of his home country through marriage/residence or we’ve been looking at investor visas. Will do whatever is easiest then we can both freely live in EU.

We run businesses in UK and the out of control tax burden is pushing us to relocate everything abroad, businesses as well. A few of our employees who are remote have already left for Dubai / Spain / Portugal. Business partner has returned to Sweden (where she pays less tax than us). We plan to keep property in UK especially as kids might stay here for uni. Have family / friends in Canada, Australia and NZ but they’re too far for me and much more difficult to relocate to in my experience.

May I suggest Northern Ireland? Still in UK but not as bad as England. The weather can be a bit crap but when the sun shines it’s lovely to be surrounded by glorious beaches

One of our youngster's friends is dual-canadian passport holder, his dream is to move off-grid to Canada, and as he's still only 14 he might actually be able to achieve this!

You do know that all schools get 5 training days in a year and if the school has a significant number of Muslim pupils it makes sense for them to use one or two of them for Eid.

And I’m sure that Sharia law has not replaced UK or English law anywhere in England. There are Sharia councils and some people may choose to follow Sharia principles but the only recognised legal system in England is the English one.

Any post that mentions the NHS (a service that provides healthcare based on need not how deep your pockets are) in a moan could do well to appreciate that it could be a lot worse.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/asthma-death-prescription-price-pharmacy-lawsuit-rcna210075

"In 2024, a 22-year-old from Wisconsin died after being unable to afford an asthma inhaler. Cole Schmidtknecht, who had battled chronic asthma since childhood, was denied his inhaler when he went to collect his prescription, as the price had jumped from $66 to over $500, a price he could not afford. He would die two weeks later."

And check out Stan Brock, he was a British philanthropist who set up a charity that provided healthcare to those in need. Initially created to treat people in the developing world, his service turned its attention to aid millions in america.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Brock_(philanthropist)

@Notfinanciallyresponsibleforyou yep
we want our kids to leave as well - once they are through university, or even perhaps do further uni overseas

We're considering this Op, the tax burden now on the working classes is ridiculous. There's no incentive to earn more, and make my business grow. I'll end up being worse off! We're considering the Middle East for DH's work, or Portugal. We know plenty of people considering it too at the moment, all top earners... this is what happens when you keep penalising those that work/high earners and keep giving money away.

I know plenty of people who purposefully don't go over 16 hours a week of work, even though they could, as their UC is more worthwhile than working. I know a mum at school who doesn't work at all, has 4 kids and gets over £3k a month, it's a shit show here now.

I am worried about the number of youngsters leaving. Within my children’s university groups and the cul-de-sac we live on - two have gone to Australia (including a doctor), one has gone to New Zealand, three are in the Middle East, one in Denmark, one in Italy, two to Canada and now my son and girlfriend are talking about moving to Portugal. That seems like a lot of mid/late 20’s professionals who have made moves already. Oh and fellow teacher and her family are moving back to India next year.

The UK is a turning into giant public sector with unaffordable pensions, it feels like the junior doctors are permanently on strike, and there is an exploding benefits bill to be paid for.

I have family in 5 countries and spend considerable amount of time there (Europe, US and ME). Uk is the worst to be in as middle class at the moment compared to 10 years ago. It does not mean that there are no problems in the other countries, it means that in the UK living conditions for the middle classes have declined the most than the others I know. It is still good for very rich people, although the non-dom regime change has also made it not as good and excellent for people on low income as the amount of benefits is not comparable to any other country, other than the nordics where benefits are good for everybody, including the middle class.
so I understand as a middle class person it is very grim, but it might be worst in other countries just they don’t see it that way so much as it has not been declining so steeply.

politicians have lied on Brexit and even now they are not communicating the reali impact, although ppl are feeling it. It has been a very bad decision and it will go down in history as such. It is also too complex to revert and no one wants to admit to be wrong, especially the people who voted for it.

said that, select a country where people like you can do better than the uk. From what you write you don’t work and are middle class, so Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy and theUAE could be good as they have good health facilities (better than then uk even the private one!) and some of them have good tax regime for pensioners. If you were working with small kids it would be different and you would need to select different countries..,

All you can do is look at your realistic options @Tanyasfootspa

Where can you go first?

There are entry requirements for all countries, and the more desirable the country the pickier they can be.

You can effectively buy residential visas, for the US they are $5million each, cheaper elsewhere obviously, if your kids are at university you are what 50s ish, that limits your options a lot because statistically you will begin to start needing more healthcare, which you might have to pay.

But if you have the cash, and think it would be better put towards living somewhere else rather than using it just for holidays, escaping etc. even if you have say a private pension bringing in £80K a year for you both that won't go far if you are having to pay for everything elsewhere.

So look at your options carefully, and see what is required, language, health, property renting or ownership barriers. It's not easy.

Do you have any route to get dual-EU passports? - because that is our plan, I can enter as a spouse. We want to retire in Italy, and have suggested to our children to look at moving at the beginning of their working lives and start to build up a life elsewhere. So we are not expecting to live in the same country as any potential grandchildren, and with the birthrate dropping and cost of living and housing uncertainty I would say grandchildren are only 50/50 at best nowadays, possibly, less in favour of having them! But that's not our choice.

Alternatively you could look at moving to a part of the UK that suits you better, which would be the much easier and cheaper option.

There's Sharia law in East London? It seems to have passed me by.

Local Asian shop is open 365 days of the year, being the hardworking man that he is.

THIS.

This is the reality, but is far far easier to blame benefits, immigrants or each other.

OP would be better to switch off social media and go about your life, people go on and on about things that have no real impact on their lives-

Boats coming over, crime, Wokeism, Terrorism, its all you ever fucking hear, day in day out- but take a good look at your life, kids at Uni , I assume you own your own home, sounds like you have a life quality better than most of the entire planet.

We live in the 6th economy country in the world, people risk death to come here for the opportunities you and your children have. Why not apprciate what you have?

Far , far too many people in this country have become 'red pilled' into believing we live in cesspool with no fucking idea what real hardship is.

I'd say crack on - it'll be 2 fewer people for the NHS and the government generally to have to worry about when you start getting old and ill.

Or would you continue to draw your UK state pension, and head back to the UK once you need health care that you can't afford in the new country you've chosen to live in?

Really.. your observation is indicative of the country? Perhaps they met up after doing other jobs?

I lived there, they tend to get on with the job... with very early starts, annoyingly so, e.g strimming at 7am, bin collections at 5am.

Minor roadworks? Each gang has a portable set of traffic lights, when the job is done, lights put in the van, unlike the UK where a private company keep them up over the weekend and evenings.

Roads like billiard tables and parks kept tidy and litter free.

I agree 100% about what others have said. The media is brutal in this country and seems to be making this country out to be so much worse than it is. So many people want to move here for a reason! I have spent 20 years living in various countries in Latin America and Europe and in each country people moan about their government. Cost of living is high everywhere and to fit in to a non-English speaking country you need to learn the language. Even then it is always hard to feel at home. Go and travel and see the world, but don't expect things to be perfect, even if it is by the beach living under a palm tree. I came home from living in Spain, which I loved but I got tired of pickpockets, terrible customer service and bureaucracy and extortionate rental prices. Latin America was hard because of corruption and very high crime rates. Have you thought about a different part of the UK? I am from the south but came back to the Peak District which is a gorgeous and friendly place to live. Good luck to you whatever you decide to do

This.

people seem to have this idea to emigrate, but how are they all getting visa’s?

One of my dc wants to do a year out in the US, maybe Canada. A visa is almost impossible without £££££ as you cannot work.

Let's all get in the queue to move to that utopian country which has miraculously escaped the problems afflicting the rest of the planet 🎡

What makes you think it might be better elsewhere? I remember being in France and watching a team of about 8 workers tidying up a tiny playground and grassed area. Too many people for the job - they mostly lolled about and chatted!

I’ve left the country to go into tax exile twice! The first time (Switzerland) was just a brilliant work opportunity. The second time (Abu Dhabi) I was just fucking sick of working 60 plus hours a week and receiving a lower hourly rate than I paid my cleaner, for the dubious privilege of being in a MC “profession”. Those years of higher salaries and low/no tax (pre-DC) were life changing. At the same time, I felt strongly about raising DC here in the UK when the time came. Saying that, I’m not sure I would have been as keen to come home to the UK as it is now ie pretty much a shithole except in the few remaining pricey areas.

As an immigrant in a foreign country there are lots of services like free healthcare you wouldnt have access too. The rest of Europe has the same problems as the UK. Do you read the news?! France has civil unrest, problems with their NHS and the school system and the rise of the extreme rights for example!!!

Yes, the real ins and outs.

This is exactly how I feel.

As an aside, I work for a local authority and, frankly, some of the entitled attitudes of members of the general public are shocking - coupled with generational attitudes to a life on benefits. I realise it's always the loudest, most obnoxious and demanding voices that are heard most and there are also many members of the public within our area who have to be coaxed into accessing help and support and exercising their rights to benefits etc who don't take up anywhere near the same amount of resources as those constantly demanding more and more and finding ways to tie up LA officers with petty complaints and arguments for imagined slights.

I listened to a phone call the other day whilst I was in the office between a service user and FOUR LA officers about 'home to school transport'. It went on for TWO HOURS. That's an entire working day tied up in hours across those four officers for ONE school refuser who, judging by everything I heard, is NEVER going back to school. Replicate that sort of scenario a few hundred times every month and there's not many people getting value for money from their local authority.

SM and the press are doing a really good job of convincing everyone that Britain is about to fall off a cliff (as if things were any better with Boris & co!) but in reality lots of countries are struggling at the moment. Canada has suffered so many strikes over the last year or so, for example.

Everything we are being drip fed is very reminiscent of the States pre Trump's second term. Just as with his first term, Trump paid Russian bot factories to flush SM sites with fake posts of support, lies about opponents and mass stoking of the fears of 'a certain' element of the population. Boris did the same before he got in.

We are being primed for a Reform government because the people who own the press want more tax breaks. The Reform manifesto is a shitshow of Nationalistic crap, but it's peppered with a loss of rights for workers and a tonne of tax breaks for the rich.

I choose to take the vast majority of the 'Britain is doomed' narrative with a skip load of salt.

I'm lucky to have friends living across the EU, Middle East, the US and Canada and nobody is singing from the roof tops right now.

Not considered it myself, but I work in the immigration field and it’s not as easy as you may think.
You would need an employer to sponsor one of you and that may not guarantee that the other may have rights to work in that country.

Various countries are stopping work permits being converted into indefinite leave to remain so you may find that moving can only be a temporary option and you’d have to return once the work ended.

just a few things to consider.

Plus I’m pretty convinced that nearly every country is currently a bit of a sh*tshow!