Probate stealth tax

SIR – I have recently lost my wife, and my solicitor has advised that we must seek probate on her estate before May 1, when the fee is set to rise from the current £155 to an eye-watering £20,000. This would have to be paid before probate is granted.

I have voted Conservative all my life because they have believed in a fair, caring society. With this miserable stealth tax, this can no longer be said. David T Jones Cranleigh, Surrey