Is Queen Elizabeth Losing Money Because of COVID-19?
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is affecting countless people around the world. With social distancing policies in place, folks are seeing unprecedented changes to many aspects of their lives.
Royals have also not been spared from the effects of COVID-19. For example, several royals have tested positive for the virus so far, including Prince Charles. While Queen Elizabeth’s physical health seems to have not been affected much, there are reasons to believe her financial state may be changing due to the pandemic.
Queen Elizabeth’s net worth and how she makes money
Queen Elizabeth is the head of one of the most famous royal families in the world. As such, it is not surprising she has a lot of money at her disposal. The queen is estimated to be worth around $520 million.
She makes her money in various ways. First, she gets a portion of her money from the Sovereign Grant, which is paid to her by the British government. However, the money from the Sovereign Grant can only be used for expenses like security, work travel, and palace upkeep.
The rest of Queen Elizabeth’s income comes from her private estates. She has one called the Duchy of Lancaster, which includes private properties and assets belonging to the royal family. Additionally, she also has collections of artworks and stamps as well as a stock portfolio.
Queen Elizabeth and the rest of the royal family benefit a lot from tourism since they own land and palaces. Last year, it was estimated that the queen pulled in an estimated $100 million from tourism alone.
Queen Elizabeth could be losing millions of dollars because of COVID-19
It is no secret that both domestic and international travel has gone down significantly around the world because of COVID-19. As such, Queen Elizabeth is reportedly not making as much money as before.
Back in May, Lord Chamberlain Earl Peel, a senior official of the Royal Household, told The Sun that the income the family usually gets from royal palaces is decreasing. Thanks to social distancing policies, the palaces have been closed to the public, which prevent them from making money. As reported by the Telegraph, the royal family could lose about £18 million (or $22.7 million).
Reports say royal palaces are laying off staff members
With royal palaces continuing to be closed and not making as much money as before, it is unfortunate that the next step would be to lay off staff members.
The Sun reported earlier this month that about 175 and 250 staff members could “offered voluntary redundancies.”
“These redundancies are just the beginning,” a palace insider shared with the outlet. “We expect when the full financial fallout is revealed later this year there will be mass redundancies and a scaling down of operations.”
While some royal residences, such as Windsor Castle, are looking to open back up this summer with social distancing measures in place, royal sources do not believe things will be “normal” again until 2021.
