Can’t just be me who is sick of the moaning about the private school VAT and winter fuel payments

My dad lives in a household of 3 pensioners (himself & two PIL, his wife still works) so they get 3 x fuel allowance on a household income of about 300,000. That does seem very very mad to me.

I’m a child of two factory workers. Thank goodness they didn’t find it essential to wait until they were professionals in their 30s before having children.

Whether it is an actual source though hasn’t been proven. It’s fascinating that you think you know what everyone’s opinions are.

I work with older people and every day get them saying they can't afford to live, can't afford their council tax etc whilst living in massive houses that they don't want to leave. Even many of the bungalows are massive !! I kind of understand that their homes may hold a lot of memories or they are overwhelmed trying to move but honestly the sheer numbers of them rattling around in huge houses unable to afford to heat more than one room is an eyeopener ! Then we get those living in interest only mortgaged houses who've made no provision as to how they will pay a mortgage on £900 state pension only per month ! Don't get me started on that. Do people just bury their heads in the sand ? There needs to be a lot more emphasis on planning for an affordable old age. I guess it just creeps up on people faster than they think. they are trying to pay for gardener, cleaners etc to maintain their massive gardens yet can't afford it. I'm not without sympathy honestly but my own plan is to downsize massively as soon as the kids are gone for definite !! My own 86 year old dad rattles around in a four bed semi but at least he can afford to live there although is starting to struggle to maintain it. I had one 85 year lady on our phone line the other day telling me she took equity out of her home, spent it all on holidays and cruises and now can't afford to live and what should she do, so sometimes taking equity out isn't always the answer !!

It is essential to wait if you want the tax payers to fund your life style choices. Why should anyone else pay for what you want

Clearly you don't live in Scotland OP.

I think that is just the single person's 25% discount, which is a different thing. If her income is low and she has capital less than £16k she should be entitled to a further reduction of some kind.

https://www.gov.uk/apply-council-tax-reduction

Yet nurses, care workers, supermarket staff and cleaners have children. It’s not essential to wait until you’re a highly paid professional in your 30s before having children.

Good. If we can't afford it we can't afford it.

There are too many people choosing not to work. Yes I have seen this first hand when I worked in employability

The perception there is a high level of debate is skewed by a vocal minority trying to keep it front and centre. MN has been a key vehicle for this due to the demographic and the creativity of those in opposition in finding ever new ways to bring the topic up. Thread after thread from every conceivable angle makes it seem like it's constantly discussed. It's not in RL outside the bubbles of those effected. It was a headline policy imo precisely because the government knew it was safe. People want to know where money is coming from to fund their plans, and this is a source that many actively agree with and the rest are largely neutral about.

Yes, that's what it is after reduction unfortunately. Ours is nearly 4k.

OP I agree with your original post. How many of these pensioners are sitting with a shit ton of equity from the houses they bought for next to nothing (compared to today's prices)? If they are that skint take money out of the house.

Junior doctors aren't on low pay for long. A junior doctor is all the way up to before you qualify as a consultant.

My ex drove a merc as a junior doctor when he was higher up the scale. They don't stay on peanuts and everyone knows it.

If you're on £33k (and where is such a low salary on the photo attached) you must be 25 and just qualified and left med school.l and after your fy 1 and 2. May I suggest not having a child on a £33k salary at a young age when you just left uni and wait until you earn more money.

I couldn't have afforded a child in my 20s as a junior solicitor. That my dear is called life. You wait for what you want until you can afford it. Build a career and earn some money first like the rest of us have to.

Sure “every little helps”, but it’s likely to actually cost them money. Their maths just doesn’t add up.

The level of debate on the “niche” issue suggests people do care. If anything you are lumping everyone in with your opinions.

I don’t think they need to whip up envy to “get this through” - they’ll do it anyway regardless, because they can. It was included front and centre in their manifesto because they knew it would appeal to people’s envy and therefore win votes, without costing it properly. If it was such a “niche” issue, why make it one of their headline pledges?

It’s just pretty pitiful that they are hiding it under a veil of levelling up opportunities when the actual implications for children with many different needs and backgrounds will be devastating.

But if you are paying 40% tax on your state pension your annual income is at least £50000 so you can pay your council tax and heating bills from that, it’s not the same as someone just having to fund everything from the state pension. The personal allowance of £12570 so not just lower earners it’s everyone with income below £100 k a year. The best way for you to cut down on your tax if it’s such a problem to pay it is to stop working but then obviously the income after tax goes down too

I think everyone who works themselves to the bone should get a good pension. Most don’t. Almost none in the private sector do.

I am only stating that the salary for the people who just received a big pay lift is much higher than stated - if you take these pension contributions by the tax payer into account. The money saved by disadvantage some private SEN children and some old people will go nowhere near paying for even the salary increases- and with the pensions on top the government is bleeding money.

I think a much fairer way to do this would be to start by offering them to “opt out” of the state pension and get the immediate pay increase (probably about 20% up, at least) That would put them on the same basis as private sector employees (which includes coffee shop workers, self employed, builders etc) and they could then chose to save - or not, just like everyone else.

The SENCO qualification was a one year course a was at Level 7 (Master’s) but has now been downgraded to NPQ, which is below Level 7. There’s never been a requirement for a two-year Master’s. I have 6 years of Master’s level SEN qualifications post-PGCE. IEPs have not been required since the 2015 SEN Code of Practice.

Presumably the high needs students with private assessments will already have EHCPs, which are legal documents - allocated hours of support vary. It is difficult to find highly qualified SEN staff but it is mandatory in state schools, so each will have a SENCO, who must qualify within three years of taking up the position.

I don’t think it will be difficult to recruit 6000 teachers - I just think it will be difficult to retain them given the current exodus from the teaching profession, including early career teachers. The recruitment and retention crisis can only be blamed on the Government that was in power for 14 years until 6 weeks ago.

The VAT on private schools will fund some additional SEN support in state schools, which is only fair. We don’t need top-tier provision for the SEN proportion of 7%, but equality of provision for the SEN cohort of the 93% in state schools.

Single mum, child at private school. Circumstances have already changed since we started at the school so now I am in a worse financial situation than when we started. No benefits, no child support, no family, no holidays, struggling to make ends meet, but reliant on school for wrap around care so that I can work and DC is happy and settled at school. School acts like the family we don't have. If I can't make it work any longer and have to move schools then I'll probably move area too as I want the best school for my DC not just the nearest with a space. I'll probably give up my six figure salary and get a term time school hours job so that I can facilitate school activities DC was doing at school.
It's a massive change for us ripping up our support system. The school is everything to us. I will moan about it all I like and I give not one stuff if you think I'm entitled. Of course no one wants to have a massive life change imposed upon them. Of course I don't think it's fair it's been pushed through so quickly. As a previous poster suggested, I think a phasing in of VAT would have been more considerate to children. Who in my position would merrily accept this without moaning?

Angelus, your father should look into it. If that is his only income he will not be paying tax and if it is taken off at source a mistake has been made. He should get an annual statement and also a notice of coding so that will say what if any tax allowance he has. Most people who earn under the threshold still to receive the personal tax allowance will have a code of 1257L (ie 12570 tax free a year).
His interest on savings outside an ISA are income although he is likely to be allowed 1000 of that tax free a year.

Loads of women who work full time in professional jobs do not get a personal tax allowance of any kind but for the lower earners there is a personal tax allowance of £12,570 a year. The state pension - the only pension I will receive if I live to age 67 (having paid NI on full time earnings without a break since 1983) - where the person has no income of any kind is less than the single person allowance. Whereas my doctor father worked almost until he died at huge amounts of tax were taken off his NHS pension and state pension because of his work income. I also will probably work until I die so at least 40% of my state pension will be taken in tax which will leave enough just about to pay the almost £5k a year council tax and a bit of my heating bills but not all.

Has your neighbour claimed for council tax benefit? I think it is called Coucil Tax Reduction now.

I work in tax and I don’t think the mechanism is there to do this currently. Tax at the minute isnt collected by the dwp on pensions it’s collected through hmrc. How it works is that the dwp tell hmrc, automated I guess, how much state pension each pensioner gets. If the person also has a private pension or still works this is operated through paye. Their tax code is amended so that the amount of the state pension is deducted from their personal allowance. Thst tax code is applied to their pension or wages when a payment is made, tax is deducted from the payment by the pension company or employer who then pay this over to hmrc. There are savings allowances and dividend allowances where tax is not paid below a certain amount so hmrc won’t always have these details unless it’s someone who prepares a tax return. The total income would then have to be fed back to dwp for them to see who had less than £20000 and then make payments, it would be costly to do, that’s why they’ve gone for the simple pension credits limit, although I agree it’s too low