To think putting vat on private healthcare when many people use it because the NHS won't treat them is monstrously cruel

Actually I think something like a dog tax would be a great idea. Pets are the definition of “non-essential”, so easy to avoid the tax if you don’t want to pay or can’t afford the tax.

I’m so sick of this whining. I say that as someone who was forced to pay £14K for private surgery last year, or wait housebound for three years for the same operation by the same surgeon on the NHS.

The country is on its arse. Money has to be raised from somewhere. Taxes have got to rise. We’ve just got to suck it up.

But that would people in their place like Labour want. Personally I'd go with the dog tax.

Yes but taxing food when people already can’t afford to feed themselves is not the way to go about it.

How long did it take until the LEA agreed to pay for specialist private? If mainstream private would have been the most appropriate setting - as it is for so many ASD kids - would the LEA have paid for that? How long would that have taken? What would you have done in the interim?

all my DC have EHCPs. One in a private special school. I am well aware how the system works :)

I’m so sick of this whining. I say that as someone who was forced to pay £14K for private surgery last year, or wait housebound for three years for the same operation by the same surgeon on the NHS.

The country is on its arse. Money has to be raised from somewhere. Taxes have got to rise. We’ve just got to suck it up.

Both are consumer choices based on perceived wealth advantage.

Therefore both have the option to have VAT applied to them otherwise it is ideologically hypocritical choice.

The potential VAT revenue from UK healthcare is projected to be £2.5Bn per annum. The VAT revenue on private schools is £2Bn. Imperically healthcare would raise more revenue.

Your argument is not logical.

You mean that the children are but adults aren't. Children can't vote (yet) so are fair game. Students at university = adults so their education can't be taxed.

People already can’t afford to feed themselves. Food being 20% more expensive would completely ruin the lives of a huge portion of the country.

I meant VAT of course.

all my DC have EHCPs. One in a private special school. I am well aware how the system works :)

The NHS and state schools would run perfectly fine if it wasn't for the proportion of users who are difficult to care for or educate.
There are a significant proportion of NHS patients who are there from their own doing (alcohol, tobacco, drugs, dangerous sports etc) or because of poverty and accommodation related problems which the private sector does not have to deal with.
Also in education the private sector is selective (either academically or by type of child/family).

😂😂😂
Most people I know work in education - I can’t think of any free perks we get through our jobs. (unless you call getting a free school dinner if you do a lunch duty a perk)

If she's going to increase VAT should do remove the zero rating for food. That would raise a lot, its really hard to evade, and really gives the message of us all being in it together.

@MyDownstairsLooisHaunted hypocrisy has nothing to do with. You target taxes where they will raise the most money and lose you the fewest votes (or even possibly gain votes such as with the tax on school fees).

If Reform ever did get in and carry out what they say they're going to, their policies will bankrupt the country in the first 100 days.....

Their numbers just do not add up

No, the Conservatives were the cause of that with no post Brexit growth plan and 14 years of austerity pummeling GDP per capita and causing a decline in economic growth. Unfortunately, this casts a long shadow and much of it is irreparable.

Labour have lost any sense of reality. We have a budget coming up in a month and they have no idea how they are going to raise the money to fund what they have spent. The Reform policy of allowing private health care to be tax deducted makes far more sense and incentivises the right behaviour.

Labour relies/relied on growth.

The very presence of Labour stunts growth.

we’re fucked

That's absolutely not the case here and is an assumption many people make. It is simply not the case in all counties and is different across the country.

Even just getting an ECHP is a huge challenge for many and takes many years of pushing and challenging. In the meantime kids are left to be marginalised in mainstream school whilst they wait and you're left dealing with the academic and psychological fall out from that. One family I know had to wait 3 years to get an ECHP.

In my DSs class, over 50% of the kids have a SEN requirement and the parents are scraping the fees together to keep them there. Parents were trying to get the local council to fund their places at private school but they refused and said provision could be made to support them in mainstream education. They lasted about 6 months before they had to pull their child out as their mental health was deteriorating and the teachers didn't know or didn't want to know how best to support them.

Most people pay for private education and healthcare because they see it as an elitist thing to do. Let’s be honest here, they think they’re better than the rest of the plebs because they have more money.