Seriously thinking about leaving the UK

[Tanyasfootspa]

I’m not sure when the turning point was, but DH and I have hit a wall. The DC are both at university now, and for the first time in a long time, we’re thinking seriously about leaving the UK. The only thing stopping us is wanting to be close to potential future grandchildren.

It just doesn’t feel like the same country anymore. Everything seems to be falling apart — the NHS, education, transport, basic services — and yet at the same time, there’s this growing mindset that the government should step in and fix every personal problem. I’m all for supporting people who genuinely need help, but it’s frustrating seeing how much personal responsibility has gone out the window. It feels like no one’s expected to stand on their own two feet anymore.

We’ve worked hard our whole lives, paid our taxes, and honestly, it feels like we’re constantly penalised for it. Meanwhile, the cost of living is insane, our quality of life is slipping, and every time we turn on the news, it’s just more chaos or excuses.

We’ve started looking at options — maybe Canada, or somewhere in Europe (though Brexit makes that harder). We don’t expect a perfect life anywhere, but we want to live somewhere that still feels like it’s moving forward, not falling apart.

Has anyone else made the move once the kids were grown up? Did it help? Are we just burned out, or is this how others are feeling too?

Would really love to hear your honest experiences.

Anyone mentioning the tax burden is going to have a shock if they go virtually anywhere in EU -

Although in many places you get far more covered off for your higher tax - certainly in Copenhagen the childcare is cheap, even for babies - no Council tax, no NI as we know it ( rolled into tax) - utilities were cheaper ( about 20% cheaper ) - I think problem here is we have high tax if you factor in NI too, yet poor services and one reason is we have far too many who either aren’t paying tax or NI at all, or there isa need to top up poor wages due to high rented housing costs , council tax etc - lots of couples not both working due to high childcare prices - the expectation in Scandinavia isn’t SAHMs is my experience or a bit of part time!! So household incomes are higher on the whole. UK has created its own particular issues and a viscious circle through a lack of social housing, and currently a lack of international investment in business due to restrictions around Brexit - and far too much trying to appease those who don’t contribute be they very rich or the opposite end of the spectrum because of the rise of Farage etc - I wouldn’t invest here unless it was something very UK specific -

Ffs I'm not saying it's the UK vs Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan or wherever.

Spain's unemployment rate is currently 11% and Finland's is 9%. UK's is about 4.5%. Nobody in the Canaries has got anywhere to live and they're protesting in the streets about it. So it's not all sunshine and roses in Europe either atm, which is actually pretty irrelevant because most of us now do not have the right to reside there (and I didn't vote for that shitshow BTW)

My boss lives in the USA and is currently working full time at the same time as undergoing chemotherapy. She spends most days feeling horrendous and battling through, but she has no choice because not working = no cancer treatment and she'll die. My cousin is in Canada and has resigned herself to never being a homeowner because property prices are insane and young people are emigrating out of New Zealand in droves for better work opportunities elsewhere.

Constantly thinking the grass is greener is so damaging, it's exactly what led to Brexit and I just wish people would really read a bit more about other countries before thinking they're all shiny and perfect which is absolutely nowhere in 2025.

@Emilysmum90 I don’t disagree with what you say by the way, thing is though everyone’s position is different and a lot of the issues you mention are at the lower and lower middle end of earning world wide. It may be OP doesn’t need to work, or can use ‘nomad visa ‘ as they have earnings that don’t need their physical presence and work for themselves - housing wise — it’s not that difficult if you can afford ‘higher end’ and are renting - we had no problems getting a very nice house in Copenhagen, but then we were paying around £2600 a month , my friends in Netherlands had had no issues at £3k a month - it’s the 1400 1 bed flats that’s more of an issue - I’m not saying this is fine and dandy at these prices but this may be pertinent to OP - you can still buy a perfectly nice done up house in France for 150k euros in many parts that aren’t in middle of a city etc . Paid for health is the norm in many places and you factor it in .

Unfortunately jobs/health/housing all far more of a biggie if you need to work for others and cost is a big part of it - that may not be the OPs position - so I was just responding to her specifics.

These are fair points for average Joe, but the people chatting about leaving UK are the wealthier / higher earning ones. Those on benefits don't consider leaving.

So the question is if life is better for these high earners in the UK under Labour or elsewhere.

We have some very temporary reprieve with Trump, because the usual destination for high potentials would be US, it's now not attractive for a lot of people, but with anticipated IHT/gift taxes changes this might be the last nail in the coffin.

What changes in IHT/Gifting? i had no idea we had had the Autumn statement..... can't imagine changing the 7 year rule is going to raise much money.

Is this yet another scare story being pushed by the right? after cash ISAs proved to be false, as did changes to CT rates pre election

More Doom and Gloom.....

Hah, I wasn't asking what is so good about the UK compared to Afghanistan or Syria, sure it's better than a war torn country, but that is a super low bar so that may answer my question for me already. I was asking what is so good about the UK compared to other developed, western countries which aren't currently at war. Everything you have said is available in the US, Europe, Australia, Japan, Australia, etc etc, many of which don't have super low salaries in relation to cost of living and tax, privatised trains which cost 10 times what they do in other countries, crumbling water infrastructure that is not being addressed, no caps on electric bills, an unsustainable welfare system and shitty, low quality high cost housing. Please do try again.

Not entirely true. You get more for your tax but there are also countries with tax incentives for those in higher demand, higher skilled fields Portugal for example has the NHR 2.0. 20% flat tax for 10 years. Sounds muuuuch more appealing than 45% tax in the UK with the same services available.

We lived in Singapore for a while, it was a lot of fun. Just an FYI though, it's a very much live to work environment vs the other way around, do be prepared for long ass hours and high expenses, however they actually compensate in relation to the high cost of living unlike the UK so that will prob be fine.

That is much lower. Some countries use tax to attract skilled people.

I already did upthread. 🙄 Giving specific examples in Europe, the US, Canada and New Zealand. Please do try again to read properly.

As if I dont have better things to do than read through 30 threads to find nonsense backed up by no actual experience?

I asked you what makes the UK so great, you said it's not a war torn country, that's all I need. OK, the UK is better than Syria, you got me, def worth staying here. 🙄

I'll look forward to your post whinging about how your taxes keep going up and your children have no opportunities bc the govt has no way to fill the void from all the money lost after people like me went abroad and moved their companies abroad. I'll be sitting on a beach with my computer while you are drowning in debt in a country that is imploding around you. Stay and get fucked :)

Everywhere is stuffed and the reasons are very complex.

I was walking around my home town the other day (don’t usually live there) and I realised we don’t have a housing problem in the way everyone is talking about it.

we have a very generous tax payer funded system that was funded to provide X to y and we are now being asked to provide 100 times x to 500 times y.

the solution can’t be to tax the working population more and more while everyone else carries on.

about 20 years ago I made a post on here where I demonstrated how much better off the average person would be on benefits, unless we can have a serious discussion about these things I can’t see any meaningful change happening anytime soon.

more households are net takers than net contributors to the economy and the amount of money you need to earn to become a contributor is seriously huge. Looking around unless we can reverse that in some way we are just on a slippery slope down. It can’t be any other way, running a country is comparable to running a bank account in that if you take more than you contribute your money eventually runs out.

all the comments that are usually seen in these discussions about Nordic countries or little Islands where everyone picks up the rubbish (let’s face it they don’t usually drop rubbish!) are generally ignoring the reasons why those places are able to move forward in a cohesive fashion (it isn’t because Mr and Mrs average work harder and harder for less and less)

one thing that would help enormously is to stop striving for endless economic growth, we had a good thing, endless growth was not what was needed to keep it going endless economic growth has destroyed it!

But it's not just income tax. It's tax on everything else, but most important IHT.

Take Germany as an example - it's not just land ownership (self-use) and prime residence are exempt and many other assets. Then each recipient has personal exemption (400k children, 500k spouse).

But for all remaining assets which aren't exempt there is only 15% IHT on the amount below 600k (remember that's does not include prime residence) and then 19% for amounts between 600k and 6m if passed to spouse or direct descendants. The max IHT in this case is 30% which only kicks off after 26m!

Germany isn't exactly the worst place to live and not too fat to fly if you miss London, but where would you rather be if you have something to pass on to your kids?

Can't parents leave something like a million without paying IHT? Depending on value of their home. To be honest if my kids get quarter of a million each I don't think they need to moan, if I only had one and they got the full million I'd think they were bloody lucky. Of course I could also use annual gifts or sign over assets while I'm fit and well. So no I won't weep about IHT.

I'm off to Google the actual figures.

So just googled it and each partner can leave £325k tax free and a home valued at £175k so a couple can pass on a million IHT free.

I’m a single parent, so it’s half that for me/DD. But I still think that’s pretty good going.

Half a million isn't bad is it.

No, it really isn’t.
It won’t be that much, incidentally. But as a limit it doesn’t seem ungenerous.

@Emilysmum90 the problem is in saying - well just FO then - are that there are many many more options to FO for people paying the vast amount of the tax needed. Not as many as there were, but still options - I’m not talking about the super rich and their off shore accounts - I’m talking the 60k plus earners with businesses paying corp tax or those with PAYE jobs - an awful lot of non rich middle earners - if you end up with a country full of seriously rich who ‘often’ pay little tax as they have multiple homes and ways of hiding wealth or those claiming top ups - the country has a big tax take issue - I’m not saying anywhere is perfect but if you travel around a bit to non tourist destinations and city’s it’s not difficult to see why many in the middle think the UK is on a bit of a hiding to nothing - Brexit was a huge mistake in my opinion as there are few tangible benefits , personally I would be doing a Norway type EEA half way house as soon as possible - it’s crippled a lot of middling businesses - especially ones with a lot of exports or mail order ,

I agree about the grass not always being greener.
I gained some perspective when researching the possibility of emigrating abroad with one of the criteria being suitability for my disabled child especially in areas such as education, support and acceptance.
It turns out that the UK is one of the best places to live for a person with disabilities which while not very apparent when actually living here at the moment (thanks to service education and funding cuts) when you compare it worldwide it becomes very obvious.

Every country has its own problems and there’s always going to be pros and cons so it’s a good idea to do some careful research.

I have lived in the US for 26 years now. You have to work. Simple as that. Once you hit 65, you are fine as you will get Medicare. There is medicaid for poor/disabled but this is marginal at best. Its not a bad system. So long as you have a job...Healthcare is fantastic.

Dc is in the us at the moment. We’re finding it a massive struggle as it is so different, and honestly it’s much worse.

tax system is a nightmare. Makes me appreciate PAYE. Banks are a nightmare- no bank transfers, everything has to be done through third party apps. For a non-us citizen opening an account and the apps is a logistical nightmare as you don’t have a social security number which they use to verify your identity. they still use cheques, setting up payment straight into a bank account is also difficult.

healthcare navigation- dc gets there’s through their job, but there’s in network and out of network and copays, deductibles…. If they use the work occupational health there’s nothing to pay, but even for minor things they get referred. Dc had an issue where here it would be a go, prescription, and self care. But there it’s see occupational health, who refer to for example ortho or seem, then it’s $500 for the prescription the occ. health could have given for free.

people keep asking whether they’ll stay when their contract is up and so far they think the UK is the better option.