VAT on school fees not applied retroactively- ultra wealthy are safe

This constant accusation of people being jealous is actually what is pathetic. I have a child in a private school due to her SEN - I would have preferred for her to go to state school. The VAT will affect me and I have a whole lot less money than the person upthread, complaining about having to budget over £80k per year for school fees.

Bottom line, count your blessings. The most vulnerable people in society are the ones who need protecting the most right now after they have been punished by the previous government for 14 years.

People who don’t have children also do that. And what about the difference between those with 6 children and those with 1? It’s not how it works, and anyway everyone benefits from a well educated population. If you choose to pay for some extra privilege, that’s up to you (though I’m not entirely sure I agree it should be allowed…).

If you look at the legislative details on hmrc website you will see that advanced payments won’t work.. only where fees have already been set so 24/25 yes but beyond unlikely.

Research shows that parental education and income has far more impact on how well a child will do at school than what school they went to. So for that reason I think children who had to leave their private schools due to VAT increase will mostly be fine.

There is time over summer to plan ahead. It’s a fair tax thar the privileged few can afford. We have had this debate a lot on here. There is nothing new to say. Of course the super wealthy are on a better position still. Hopefully there will be a tax on wealth in the pipeline.

Starmer went to Leeds. He just did a postgraduate course at Oxford

Honestly it’s quite racist and sexist to keeping bringing up Diane Abbott here. She’s not deciding on this now. So did Ruth Kelly, who nobody ever mentions, who was a former education secretary. She turned out to have a child with SEN in private school for a few years, her other kids went to state schools. Harriet Harman’s kid/s went to grammar.

Jeremy Corbyn went to private school himself for some of his education and then a grammar. Kier Starmer went to grammar which converted to fee paying during his time there and he got a bursary. What’s the point of this discussion? All kids and families are different.

People make hard choices for themselves when their own kids are at stake because they know the intimate circumstances of what their kids need. That need and the solutions available locally doesn’t always match the parents’ politics. But it does show there need to be lots of different options in education. This is shutting down options.

The govt is not ‘comprehensive educated.’ Starmer just happened to live in a grammar area. So did Reeves in Kent. Both went to Oxbridge.

Yes, since the 1990s apparently, so it was completely obvious that now in a post-pandemic world, where children have just had the disruption of COVID, that this would be the time to actually implement it.

‘We literally just found out about the VAT increase being implemented from January’

mmm, long time coming though. Very long time. Anyone who buried their head in the sand only has themselves to blame.

We’re now governed by a load of comprehensive educated people, who some how still succeeded in life, and they don’t seem to be an enamoured of private education as the Tories were. Thank goodness.

It's just a nonsense scenario. How could anyone know for definite when all they are working from is headlines and the party isn't even in power? It just sounds a bit holier than thou if I'm honest, but then I should expect that from these threads 🤷🏻

I’m confused - I thought private schools were used mostly by the MC ‘strivers’ who ‘prioritise’ their DCs education, unlike the rest of us, make sacrifices, forgo holidays, beg for the grandparents pensions etc.

You’re now telling us, OP, that actually WEALTHY people use private schools?? I’m so surprised

I suppose they have to date it from somewhere…

I have children in private school

and my point was that if i knew for certain that i would have to pull out if any VAT increase…. i’d have been putting them on wait lists for state schools asap 🤷 way back winter last year

huh?

My children are private

That posters children attend private school and she is pulling them because of the VAT increase

it was an ongoing point of discussion

Also this!! No way I would’ve changed schools based on speculation regarding the policies of a government that was not even elected yet!!
not sure the people questioning this actually have children in school or it would probably be obvious.

I was wrong in retrospect but I was convinced back in March this could no way happen before September 2025 😂, if nothing else, simply because of common sense considerations for how households budget.
I feel it should not be up to the common household to figure out the details of what a government is going to do even before it’s elected.
But hey, it’s done now and I will figure out how to make the numbers work. I’m not complaining about the substance of the policy, just how it’s implemented. And as I said, my impression of private schools in my area is you pay a lot to be in a bit of a bubble where every child is tutored and it’s hard to tell how much of the performance is driven by better school vs more being spent on tutoring and extra curricular activities. So long term I’m not too fussed.

Comments like this really do my head in. If you actually have skin in the game and depend on the private sector to meet your kid's needs uprooting them is a last resort, not an easy capitulation. You don't tear them away from their support network based on headlines. Even if it was expected, you'd expect them to have some shred of humanity on the timing, not do it mid-academic year. Tone deaf.

@AhaHa that last line isn’t my views but what I think was motivating policy

It’s a pity it’s not done with thought to children but there you go

November 2023 they’d confirmed as such

if i knew that the intro of VAT to fees would definitely mean my children have to be withdrawn… then i prove my would have got them on waiting lists for local schools by March as it was all over the news by then as something to pretty much definitely accept as happening

🤷

I think they always looked like using this as a blunt tool without thought to families or children impacted

The sooner and harder for people the better

did you vote for them?

Well back in March, I did not know for sure that Labour would win, even if I knew it was likely. And I did not know what campaign promises they would keep or break. And even if VAT on private schools was on the keep list (which many of my connections more in the know than myself seemed to question) I certainly had no idea they would choose to implement it from January, even in the middle of a school year. Maybe I should have had a crystal ball like you?
I am in general pro labour but I think this is one of the in principle ok policies they have in practice implemented in a maximum painful way for many households. As a parent it’s kind of hard to forgive them for the “how”, even if the “what” makes sense.

What do they mean by connected people?

OP you just come across bitter as some people have either a. Been clever and avoided the vat or b. Have more money than you.

Have a tissue...