To think IF what dd says is true these parents are freeloading horrors?

[listsandbudgets]

DD has just come back from Brownie camp. It was £80 for 3 nights away including some great activities and all food etc which I thought was quite good value.

She says one of the girls in her dormitory kept saying that other girls parents were really silly to pay the full £80 as Brownies would pay if you asked and you just had to make a contribution based on what you could afford. She told DD endlessly that "her mum and dad only paid 1p for the whole trip" and kept telling her what a great bargain it was.

AIBU to think that if this is true then the parents are complete free-loaders? Surely even if they were on full benefits, they'd have been able to find £5 at least towards it. 1p is almost insulting - however perhaps that was all they could afford and I'm a judgemental cow

Nope. You're not being unreasonable;-)

I am a single parent with 3 dc's. Voluntary contribution is not that at our school. On occasion, when I haven't had my cheque book handy, I have just filled out the form thinking I would pay after. My dc's have always been hounded for the money so much so that my DS will no longer hand over a form unless he has the cheque in his hand. My dc's are on PP.
once, on their first day at a new school they had a trip which I, obviously, had no idea about. I had no money on me. I told them this, they rang me later at home to ask me how much I could bring in at home time. I was quite surprised they would take them and have space for them on their first day tbh.
Oh and by the way, we haven't had a holiday for 6 years.

When my DH left me and my DCs for the OW, money was tight to say the least. DD was due to go to an outdoor activity centre for 5 days (school trip). I'd already paid the deposit £35 but couldn't manage the rest or all the specialist gear needed. The headteacher made sure that not only was DD able to go, she arranged sleeping bag, wet weather gear, walking boots. I will never forget her tactful intervention and compassion during a particularly unpleasant time.

Late to this, but just to say that in our scout group it wouldn't be the other children's payments covering this child, it would be the fundraising done over the whole year (we also always charge the kids £25 less than the real cost of the trip and cover this with fundraising). We covered costs for one kid, who is no longer in scouts, not because of financial hardship but because their parents refused to prioritise the kid and their activities over themselves, and we didn't think this kid should miss out. So trips, subs and uniform were covered. I'm sure the parents thought we were mugs but the kids shouldn't suffer for their parents' selfishness IMO.
In your brownie camp situation, it's sad that the parents shared this with the girl as something to brag about but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some children being subsidised (maybe others you don't know about who are hiding it not bragging about it, though it's nothing to be ashamed of, it's what fundraising is for).

A coach hired to take primary children to a fairly local event costs around £1,000

Is this true? I thought my son's primary school was overcharging or there was a large number of freeloading parents (most if not all of them should be able to afford the local trips), but maybe its not the case.

zad I suspect it depends on the area you live in.
I know I can hire coaches for groups for much less than that.....40 seater for about £100 for 22 mile return trips, over a couple of hours.
However we have quite a few coach operators (so competition) who do school buses (we are semi rural and lots of children are bused into school) so we get the better price if we book them after the school runs as they have the coaches and the drivers so we are basically only covering fuel/wear and tear.

For trips, our school asks for a "Voluntary contribution" which most people read as: voluntary means don't have to pay if I don't want to. Which isn't the case, and trips which are often subsidised by school sometimes don't go ahead because a lot of people just choose not to pay. And it's not always all the low income families I can assure you of that!