Charity Bequests Hit All-Time High

The amount of money left to charities in the wills of deceased people reached an all-time high in 2014, totalling more than £2.2 billion.

An analysis of accounts filed at the Charity Commission shows that 35,000 people in England, Scotland and Wales who died in 2014 made donations in their wills, benefiting more than 2,200 charities. Charitable donations amounted to an average of more than 16 per cent of the estates of those making them.

More than 550,000 deaths were registered in England, Wales and Scotland in 2014, so fewer than one in ten people leaves money to charity when they die.