Here in the UK we have an exclusive club for multi-millionaires – exclusive because only people who are members of the royal family can join.

The benefits are very generous and unique. Special tax exemptions, an increasingly large donation from the public treasury, and the ability to keep your will a secret, so no one really knows how much you’ve raised.

No senior royal – with one exception – is worth less than £20 million.

So where does all this money come from? He didn’t win it on horses or the lottery.

And they certainly didn’t work for it.

First, there is the Sovereign Grant, the annual government payment to the Queen. This figure rose from £7.9m in 2011 to £85.9m last year.

And that doesn’t include the nearly £200 million in security costs, often to ‘protect’ younger royals you’ve probably never heard of.

One of the reasons for the huge increase is Chancellor George Osborne’s disastrous decision to leave 25% of the revenues from the Crown Estates to the Queen, which, despite her name, have been in the hands of the public since 1760.

This body owns 1.25 million acres, many scattered properties, and most importantly, river and sea level.

The ocean floor alone is giving the Queen a windfall windfall worth millions through the construction of wind farms – money that should go into the public purse.

Why are we handing millions of public money to perhaps Britain’s richest family as people across the country queue up on high energy bills and banks for food?

And compare our Royal Family funding to other European monarchies: £86m in the UK, £12m in Belgium, £10m in Denmark and £6m in Sweden.

The second is the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall. These are the former royal lands of the 14th century.

Read our Prince Andrew Live Blog for the latest updates

The only reason they did not return to the public with the Crown Estates in 1760 was that they were almost worthless at the time.

In 1760 the Duchy of Lancaster cost just £16.92. Now their cost is in lakhs.

The Duchy of Lancaster owned the Savoy Estate, which covers much of central London – when the Duchy was founded in 1399, the area is today extremely valuable real estate.

The Duchy of Cornwall, which provides over £20 million a year to Prince Charles, dates from 1337 and calls itself private, except when it comes to paying taxes, when it calls itself public.

Unlike any other asset, it does not pay corporation tax. The duchy also owns large portions of properties across the country.

It also includes the Oval Cricket Ground in London. Additional cover for Prince Charles who killed the taxpayer for six years.

But as mentioned, there is now an exception for the super-rich club: Andrew, Grand Old Duke of Sledge.

As revealed yesterday in The Sun, it looks like Andrew may be walking away from Her Majesty to help keep himself and Fergie afloat.

But we need full assurance that public money will not be involved in this.

If the Queen uses money from the Duchy of Lancaster – as is likely – she can deduct it from tax as a business expense.

This would mean paying less taxes and therefore a public subsidy for Andrew’s shenanigans.

This can not happen. The public will find this idea rebellious.

We need a clear statement that any money handed over by the Queen will have no effect, directly or indirectly, on the public purse.

Moving forward, the sad reality for Andrew is that he has to start living within his means. But then the disfellowshipped prince will not get more invitations.