To think if you can no longer afford school fees...

Do you feel like this about people who can’t afford the mortgage because of the interest rates?

The op has a point and considering the amount of kids unable to access dentistry, MH provision, a functioning NHS, in poverty…. the same posters whining about vat on private education need to expect a lack of empathy. If they don’t want derision don’t post endless threads about it.

@ChocolateFinger222 not bitter and jealous? Just fed up with the posts? Well then don't answer them, because you're coming across as very bittter and very jealous!

This was started by someone being nasty and you've joined in, it was not started by someone that was moaning about the rise.

I think in a way, you have really hit the nail on the head here. Child poverty will not be addressed by this measure. It will increase inequality in education and make the polarisation even wider. There is definitely an argument on the VAT, but the sensible and fair way to remove it would be to do so in a tapered way over a few years. This would give time for children to finish key stages, for parents to make financial plans and for schools to manage it at their end. Labour's approach to this shows the policy for what it is, a vindictive, ill-thought through, cheap vote winner.

OP-What a mean post - this seems unnecessarily unkind and goady. It's not even starting a proper conversation.

My kids go to state but I can have some
empathy for families costs going up. The same way I can have empathy about peoples mortgages going up when it didn't affect me.

If you can't say something nice or something constructive that adds to the debate, perhaps think about not saying it.

Not bitter and jealous just answering ridiculous posts and fed up with threads and posters not taking the VAT increases on the chin. They knew they were buying something 94% couldn’t afford when they started. It seems being part of a majority that has to handle huge inequalities caused by private education is only ok when you’re not part of it.

Our tax pays for multiple state school places. Then we pay for private on top. We don’t live in a leafy state or grammar area. Our state schools are not good. They are all below average with mainly disengaged kids (I go into them for work regularly). We won’t be moving but if we did I’d stop working, we’d be paying for less state spaces plus using two. How will that help the economy?

It shouldn’t be about state vs private. The bottom line is that education shouldn’t be taxed. Full stop. If all education was taxed except private education then I’d be all for this policy. But it’s not.

This is a policy of envy, nothing more. The numbers don’t stack and no-one will benefit. Except all the jealous people who wish they could send their kids private but can’t. And labour who are thrilling their electorate.

@ChocolateFinger222 nope you and I can't afford private education, that's true.

But why are you so bitter and jealous and I'm not?

That's what I don't understand.

Ok well they can pay their VAT then and if they can’t they will have to join the un”successful” 94% who work hard and who can in no way afford private education.

The vast majority of parents with children who have MH difficulties and SENs have to use the state education and do. I’m sorry your child is ill, (mine is too) but private education isn’t a right. It causes wide spread inequalities and only the very rich can afford it. If you’re not very rich and will now need to join the vast majority who can’t afford it I’m sorry but that isn’t the job of the state or posters to worry about.In exactly the same way those who took a risk and could afford it without VAT didn’t really care about those out of the privileged 6%. It’s hard but coping with MH and SEN in the state sector is actually the reality of 96% of the country.

Like you said tough luck. It’s not my problem those parents didn’t work hard enough to be able to provide enough stability for basic life needs. It works both ways.

I feel so sorry for all the parents that have made sacrifices to try and give their children a better life.

So sad that in the UK we mock are look down on successful people who enjoy the fruits of their work.

Higher earners aren’t going to give a shit about paying VAT on private education and those that are allegedly on the breadline and the ones who will be leaving in their droves will spend all this spare cash from private education on other items with VAT. Being a good place to live doesn’t hinge on private education for a few.

You'll care when doctors leave the country or quit their job. They're already pissed off at their pay and conditions, now you 'couldn't care less' that they have to pay thousands of pounds extra tax to get their children educated to a similar standard they needed to get into healthcare. At some point they're going to decide that they 'couldn't care less' about you.

How nice, what about the children in all this?

Are you always so jealous natured?

It's a waste of emotion really, you can't achieve what they've got, so you'll never have it. So why worry about it?

YANBU. I couldn't care less about this issue.

Try being on the receiving end.

All I get when I say about my dd, who had to go to private school otherwise she’d not have been educated at all is tumbleweed on these threads.

I am too ill to home educate. She is now so very mentally ill due to her medical condition as she can’t cope with it. She wouldn’t have survived the state school I pulled her out of at the beginning of year 9. She’s just finished her GCSEs.

We are having to send her to her current school for A levels… if she’s well enough to go that is. I tried to get her back into mainstream but she’s too fragile. As is, I’m worried about her dying. She’s anorexic and her medical condition causes her heart to stop beating. At a certain point I fear her body may not be strong enough to restart it.

Dd’s medical condition should be automatically classed as SEN, the same as epilepsy albeit her seizures are cardiological. But they are not. They are bogusly listed by the NHS as only affecting toddlers and therefore the ignorance in the medical profession is staggering, which is why dd is so badly affected actually. A doctor told dd she should have grown out of them by now and she stopped eating as a result.

I am sick to the back teeth of these threads laughing at parents having to pay even more for the privilege of endeavouring to give their kids a ‘normal’ life.

Why is it ok to stick the boot into me but not ok to berate parents for not being able to feed their kids? Neither should be acceptable.

Yeah, I imagine the halls are awash with working class kids in private schools.

What a mean spirited post.

Fuck how it impacts on the kids, eh? That’s tough. Rich little snots deserve it anyway, eh?

Just horrid.
Except it won’t impact the rich kids. They will still be able to go. It’s the working class kids that will have to leave. Private schools will keep running. Kids who go to private school will continue to have an advantage, except now those advantages will be just for the rich kids, like it used to be.

Have a slow clap from me.

if more parents from private schools end up having to send their children to state schools it will improve state schools- they are often the sort of parents that will strongly push for change. my child went to state school and it was excellent - do get slightly annoyed at the assumption that only children in private schools get a good education. Like all things there is a great variety in standards. I do however disagree with private schools on principle but i also disagree with religious schools- everyone should mix together and learn to understand each other- think it would benefit society and improve social cohesion

Maybe Labour will then build more state schools if the need for places is clear ?

Will they actually need to though ? With a falling birthrate comes a reduction in the need for school places.

I don't think it's fair, reasonable or kind, it certainly won't be a money generator if many students migrate to state but it will just be tough.

Unfair, unreasonable, unkind policies are dished out each and every year and having to make do is usually the outcome of it all.

Ask any disabled person paying for a spare room, or woman who aborted her, what would have been a much wanted but I'll afforded, third child, or the home where one single earner has the temerity to bring in £61k rather than a double income home with each at £49k when it comes to child benefit etc, etc.

I'm not going to waste a single second of time feeling sorry for people who can no longer afford school fees.

However the sheer joy and malicious pleasure some posters are displaying is truely vile.

I judge those people very harshly.

What would have been fairer IMO is to apply it to the new school intake years only and probably from next year. Those already in the school and those who have applied already for this year made their decision on private schools based on the fees at the time and it would be unsettling for these children to change schools part way through a school. There are multiple threads on here about moving house requiring a school change and how it can impact the child depending on their age - its the same with this.

I've left the UK now, so don't have a dog in this fight (but frequently consider moving back). My job is to advise international governments on economic development issues.

I can tell you taxing private schools is monumentally stupid for the UK and merely one a series of economically illiterate policies from both the Conservatives and Labour party. Irrespective of whether this policy actually achieves the tax raising outcomes (which various UK tax experts are sceptical about) it basically makes the UK in the round less attractive for investment and contributes driving away the higher tax payers that tend to be engines of economic growth. Basically if you want your economy to grow one thing you want is lots of higher earners spending money, being innovative, paying lots of taxes and influencing corporate decision making which is favourable to their country of residence (eg they take decisions which create jobs for everyone else in the UK rather than say France or Korea). The other thing higher earners do is buy things from expensive shops, bars and restaurants - this is important because it keeps these places open (the jobs are useful too) but the reason why this is important is that it makes the UK a nice place to live and that is important because people don't create businesses in countries or places they don't want to live in. Investment and start ups are highly correlated towards places which are basically good places to live (and there are lots of sensible reasons for this).

This is a stupid policy, which is one of many which will damage UK economic growth.

I am working with several countries today that want to attract UK teachers, have more UK style private schools and private international schools and want more high quality universities. It's key to their economic growth strategies and the UK doesn't realise how important this stuff is because it had before the rest of the world.