Do schools check that you're living at the address you put down?

I wouldn't recommend this at I used to work for a local education authority and we used to remove kids all the time who's parents obtained school placed fraudulently. We cross checked council tax bills and utility bills and asked for documents to support proof of address and it's embarrassing and fraud can go to court and is a criminal offence.

I think aswell being right near a good school so it's easier for the kids rather than moving 15 miles away to suit my husband seems a bit daft

I'd be having a word with yourselves and having a re-think

Just read that it's a secondary school. That doesn't normally go on where you live.

The proof of the child's address is genuinely hard. Could be junior bank account statement, NHS letter (eg flu jab reminder), nursery invoice etc. The GP will usually provide an immunisation record if requested, which has the child's address on. I never like suggesting that though, as GP surgeries have enough to do!

Yes they do if they're over subscribed.

For those saying LAs also ask for proof of child’s address like child benefit letters. What happens if you don’t have this.

Just thinking I don’t claim child Ben or tax credits so wouldn’t have anything with child’s address on it.

We have been contacted at the primary school where I work to check potential anomalies.

My London borough checks three times - application, offer day and first day.

And quick frankly op if I’m honest people like you full of money who fuck up the school system to your advantage make me feel sick. If you have so much money to throw around why not go private and give your child’s place to someone less fortunate?

As my Nan use to say the more money they have the dirtier they are - and she didn’t mean you needed a wash!

Round here we get letters every year from the school asking us to 'grass up' anyone in the area that don't actually live at the addresses.

Just delay the move until they have a place?

And personally no, I would never accept Council Tax on its own. Why should I? Anyone who genuinely lives at an address should very easily be able to supply at least some form of corroborating evidence (payslip, doctor's letter, phone bill, utility bill etc, even if it's electronic not paper). Frankly it's a pain in the arse and I wish I didn't have to, but sadly there are people every year who try to cheat the system (as - potentially - demonstrated by the OP).

Schools and local authorities aren't all the same you know. All you can say is that some will ask some won't.

Again, that's not wholly true. In our LA, if you own a property in the local area, then the LA will refuse to accept a rental address as the application address, even if you're living there at the time, unless you can show very clearly that your rental property is not an 'address of convenience' - eg evidence that you've rented out your owned property for years, and lived at your rented property for ages. I'm not saying it's impossible, but you'd have to be prepared to provide lots of very good evidence.

In our LA you have to upload your council tax as part of the application process. And I'd imagine that only in very extreme circumstances is that not proof of residence (at least for the adults).

If he's 9, why not just stay in the house until he applies because technically, the fact that you own the house is irrelevant. it's where you live. In the same way that for all that people like to froth at the mouth when people move into a rental property closer to a school - the point is that it's where you are living at the time of application that counts. Not where you own a house or whatever.

If he's Year 5 it's one more year. If he's Year 4, it's only 2 years?

We ask for a Council Tax bill too, but it's not enough on its own. First, because it doesn't prove that the parent or child is actually living at the address - only that they own it. Second, because it doesn't meet the date requirement on its own (the Council Tax bills are issued before/after the application opening/closing dates, so a family could have moved house before/after submitting their application).

[quote pralinee]@titchy I'm sorry but that's just not true! I work in admissions, this is literally my day job. In our LA, yes, the coordinated applications (ie for Reception and Year 7) are made via the LA. But the LA delegates responsibility for checking address evidence to the schools. If the school has a concern, then they flag this up to the LA, who will then step in. Incidentally, for in year admissions, the LA is even less involved, as applications are made direct to schools. Address evidence is also checked for in year applications, again by the school.[/quote]
Maybe your LA do it differently then. Mine certainly checks council tax!

I found this out when applying for DS - the application was done in my name but the council tax was in DHs. They got in contact and it was sorted out very easily, but up until then, I hadn't been asked to provide proof of anything.

@titchy I'm sorry but that's just not true! I work in admissions, this is literally my day job. In our LA, yes, the coordinated applications (ie for Reception and Year 7) are made via the LA. But the LA delegates responsibility for checking address evidence to the schools. If the school has a concern, then they flag this up to the LA, who will then step in. Incidentally, for in year admissions, the LA is even less involved, as applications are made direct to schools. Address evidence is also checked for in year applications, again by the school.

Yes they do. And it's enormously frowned upon to say you're living at an address that you're not.

Yes. At our school the governors visit at weekends to check. People used to lie all the time about where they were living but they can't now.

So we were particularly alert and paranoid conscious of all this. No checks were carried out.

But they would have been - you just didn't know about them.