What changes will you need to make for the VAT increase?

yeah, removing 3 bright kids from this country will surely help those poor and struggling...

Just make sure to vote Labour, this is brilliant policy they'll introduce ASAP

Oh and to answer for me!

If the school I was considering for DS (currently at state primary) does put the full 20% on their fees it will put it out of my reach so will go state and may move house to facilitate this.

I'd be surprised if they do though they have a huge amount of reserves and are already (I assume) charging what they think the market will bear.

*We are looking at state schools. We will leave dc 1 in private until secondary level, which is the next sensible transition point.

There is a big age gap between dc. Dc2 will go into state from the off.

We will move to be on the catchment for our chosen schools. We have a fair idea where that is most likely and are looking already.

I will cut my hours significantly. Partly for more time at home, but Partly to facilitate lots more extracurricular activities.*

Sounds like you'll be in a much better position - did you consider making this move anyway?

A lesson for me to read the thread before posting. I'm sure I've been ripped to shreds by the posters who dominate these boards.

100% this!! So many posters like the sound of their own voice too much to bother reading the title of the thread and responding to that. So tedious, when as you say there are dozens of threads on the wider topic, or people could start their own.

To answer OP’s question (radical, I know!!) we are very very lucky that the grandparents have given us the money to put our two kids (currently in state primary) through independent secondary. We factored in VAT and annual increases, though hubby and I are both in professional jobs with decent salaries so at a stretch could have covered it ourselves.

My parents both worked in state education (MFL teacher and FE college lecturer then principal) for virtually their whole careers. It was their experiences of working in state education that led them to prioritise private secondary education for my sibling and me, and now our children. Neither was from a wealthy background themselves. But I do appreciate how lucky we are.

I am going to have to quit my job and hopefully find something closer to home. DD boards and I am a single mum. I've had a lot of stick on here because she boards but I really do feel she is happier with her friends and clubs than being here alone with me - only child. It also meant I could work in a job I love and feel alive again after years of being a SAHM and having all the responsibility.
It feels like I've just found my feet after years of ignoring myself and putting her first and I'm being hit over the head for getting above my station by a party I really wanted to vote for. I know they'll get in but it feels like dd and I are being punished for trying to make a bad situation better. I'm already shopping in Aldi and have an old car, don't go abroad. There's nothing we can save on.

I don't know if she will get into the grammar here either, as she is dyslexic, but she doesn't really want to go because the girls in her primary were very nasty because she wasn't having tutoring and was dyslexic. Because we are in a grammar area the other options are dire. We literally have charities giving out leaflets about teens with knives on the high street because of the behaviour in them... It is a very scary time but I can't really plan because we still don't know when it will take effect. School hasn't mentioned mitigating it, so I am fearing the worst which would be a 10k increase pa for us, which is impossible.

It is not just private school parents who may have to make changes, it also applies to state school parents. Youngest is far less likely to get into the same grammars as siblings went to due to the increased competition. So what do we do now? Do we now have to pay up? Or do we tutor once she is at the local school? How do we now make sure they all get the same opportunities? Do we move abroad for a few years. I am not sending her to a rubbish school. I can get a great salary in Dubai for a few years or even Frankfurt or Paris and do private school there at a cheaper price.
I am also looking at foreign options now because uni fees here are likely to increase. I do not want this kind of pressure of debt/high housing costs on my DCs. They are all high achievers and speak 3 languages.

Some of the changes posters are making sound like they will actually improve everybody's life.

I understand that.
I was just annoyed at the tone of the PP.

I thought this was going to be a chat about changes people are making not just people sniping at each other , we've got heaps of those already

Unfortunately this policy does nothing to address those problems though. It’s a shame that not one of the main parties has any firm plans of how to improve the standard of living for hard working families.

But they have time to think about how their predicament is due to those better off than them in their own mind?

Many parents in the UK are struggling to feed their families and can't afford any luxuries at all. Maybe they don't have the time to be clever and think about the children in private schools.
You don't do yourself any favours being snide and rude about people who just maybe have different priorities to you.

We always intended to stick with state, but both available schools here (one “Outstanding”)have the workhouse / military / silence / joyless thing going on and very limited arts. So we sent daughter to an independent school from Y8 and it’s been a great fit for her. VAT on top of 30K a year means we will find a state option for sixth form, but catchment isn’t such a factor then and so there are more options. Older brothers thrived in boys’ state option so we were lucky there. VAT addition making fees too tricky has an upside for us in that the financial need to move back to state education means I’ll be able to dramatically cut my working hours and take more care of my health.

We’re moving. We are going to buy a less expensive house to live in and buy another buy to let.

None of these are hardships we are
just amending the budget.

My Dsis is moving her younger DS to grammar school. Fortunately he’s Y6 and got a place.

It’ll now cost the government approx. £50,000 to educate my nephew - a cost it could have saved and left a school place open for someone else.

Dsis will also go part time from September as no longer needs to pay two lots of school fees, so will be paying a lot less tax.

I am not sure Labour have truly thought through the ramifications of this policy.

I’ve posted similar elsewhere but there are two private schools in my area, there are 5 state secondaries only one of which is over subscribed, and plenty of spaces in primary - in fact some smaller primaries under threat of closure due to falling numbers. My region will definitely be able to absorb any children moving to state.

In fairness we have a couple of outstanding state schools near us advertising they have spaces in quite a lot of year groups so I dont think the pressures are universal.

None of my friends with children at private school are indicating they might have to move back to state.

We were making quite chunky pension overpayments and payments into savings for university and will just drop these a bit. We didn't move the children to private till we could afford it comfortably, as it didn't feel fair to send them to private if it would mean our finances were precarious.

My brother's giving up his football season ticket and acting like it's the world's biggest sacrifice I think his wifr oscillates being pleased he will be around more to help and fed up of the moaning.

I have got a couple of close friends who are changing from working part time to working full time

My SIL and family are giving up their annual ski holiday.

(I’m not joking btw!).

Question for the parents really struggling to pay private school fee, forgoing and luxury and basically living poverty lives already. I'm guessing your children can see this and are living this with you. What do they think of this hardship to pay for their school? I read a newspaper piece years ago about a woman who sold her house to pay school fees. My takeaway from it was to feel really sorry for the kids. All that pressure, knowing your parents lived in poverty to pay for something, freely available on the state, so you could go to a particular school.
I could well afford private, my kids are at state though, they're fine.

And we can afford nice cars, multiple streaming services, and several holidays a year, whilst building funds for car/house deposits and university.

This is why the policy isn’t logical. Plenty of people in the private sector can’t afford those things and yet they’re the ones expected to pay even more tax to apparently fund state education they don’t use. The wealthy parents in the state sector going on multiple holidays, costing the taxpayer thousands a year for state education, won’t pay a penny more.

8m people work part time. On top of that, 1.5m are stay at home parents. The majority of those will be parents in the state sector given the relatively small number of people in private education.

This is incorrect. It’s the parents who have to pay the VAT if it’s introduced. If introduced, the schools are legally obliged to add VAT to their invoices. The school just accounts for it through VAT returns, taking account of input VAT. Private schools already pay input VAT. This policy is about output VAT. The only way that a school could mitigate the effect of the change would be to reduce their fees.