Can’t afford school fees, does this sound ok?

[Rightmovestalker]

Ds is year 11,GCSE year, going to state school in September for A levels. DH has a job but I now don't. The fees bill covers Easter - July and is £4.5k. My pay would have covered it but I’m not entitled to any state help.

We are overdrawn but have £3k available credit of our overdraft limit. We have another overdraft available for £1.5k. If we pay the fees now we will have no cash at all until 30th April when dh is paid and we have other bills to pay.

We are thinking of proposing that we pay £500 now and then chip away at it until it is cleared. Dh usually gets a bonus in July but it may not be paid this year. If it is we can clear it. Our other child went to the same school and we’ve spent c£160k in total with the school. This is the last year of fees. Does our proposal sound reasonable? Thanks.

YABU = borrow more to pay
YANBU = your proposal sounds ok

[BubblesBuddy]

You should find the school will renegotiate the fees you owe in terms of length of time you can pay them. If you have 3 years to go, you might be able to pay over 5 years for example. Your fee income for the school won’t be as high as others because you receive a bursary. Not as high as full fee payers so there might be flexibility. You might need to consider a change for 6th form but only if you cannot get back on track. However if schools have to do this with lots of parents one could see bursaries being in short supply in the future.

There are also lots of full fee paying parents who will struggle too as they didn’t get bursaries but still scrape fees together. Personally I wouldn’t advocate this but lots of people do it!

[houselikeashed]

That's true. We're up shit creek though.

[BubblesBuddy]

If you are a bursary family but are a teacher or nurse you will be fine though! Not everyone with earnings at bursary level will be hit. Anyone with a restaurant or is self employed with no sales or business left will be devastated financially. If they have paid themselves dividends (which they should not have done exclusively) they will totally be in a mess. However that’s not exclusive to bursary parents.

[houselikeashed]

I think the bursary families will be hit hard. For what I know, when schools work out what they will give you off the fees, it takes you down to the wire financially. So suddenly finding yourself with no income for several months (probably)makes living very hard. Let alone having to change schools inn the middle of GCSE's or A levels.

[Bringringbring12]

What’s lovely?
I’m certainly not on high income!! My son is on a bursary
I was saying that majority are single income high earning families

[BubblesBuddy]

When I say “standard” - he was self employed but had earned a lot before the recession and we comfortably managed the fees. So a huge drop was a shock - it would be for anyone. That’s why the op needs to speak to the school although I’m sure they will have a policy by now.

[BubblesBuddy]

In the last recession, DH had 1/10 of his standard income one year. We had savings though and several properties. We wouldn’t have qualified for help because of this. We had 2 at boarding school.

[PurpleTigerLove]

Dev - I’m glad your child has been able to attend their school esp if they are gifted in the arts. So many of the actors and actresses coming through nowadays are incredibly privileged and I imagine with family connections they don’t have the same struggles as normal people.
Bring - that’s lovely 😊 .

[Bringringbring12]

@Purpletigers

Yes very high

[Devlesko]

bubbles

No, I just meant that all schools are different, believe it or not we'll struggle to pay our bill this time, as it's paid a term in arrears.
We're probably just at the opposite end ito income, to the OP, but in the same boat. I think there will be quite a lot who will struggle.

[FrippEnos]

Talk to the school first.

[BubblesBuddy]

I did know arts schools were different but I assumed from your first post it was a standard school. It’s similar to academically gifted young people getting 100% bursaries at boarding and day schools. I know Harrow has generous bursaries.

[PenisBeakerDipper]

You won’t be the only one asking. Our school are only charging 80% for the senior school whilst it’s all online - and the pre-prep are getting a 50% discount - are your school not discounting at all?

YANBU. They will be expecting requests like this.

[Devlesko]

Here, this explains.

www.gov.uk/music-dance-scheme It means that Music and dance isn't just a preserve of the rich.

[Devlesko]

Bubbles

No, not Eton, we are poor, it's a fantastic scheme for gifted musicians, irrespective of family income. There are several schools managed like this.
Over 90% of the students receive funding.
They only look at income and you pay on a sliding scale. The more you earn the more you pay. they don't care how many holidays you have, or what car, or your mortgage, or anything else.

[BubblesBuddy]

The op says her DH has an income so it’s not one income.

[BubblesBuddy]

Tax credits come from the government and the government pays the rest! Is this a special school? So you are, in effect, paying nothing from your own earnings. Truly this isn’t managing. It’s getting other people to
pay. One assumes it’s not Eton.

[PurpleTigerLove]

High single income ?
Tax credits on private school fees ? Wow 😮

Thank goodness I live in a country where private schools are reserved for the social climbers . All our schools are very good .

[Bringringbring12]

@Purpletigers

The vast majority are single income at my son’s school

[Devlesko]

We have a household income of under 20k and still pay school fees, it depends on the school and how it's managed.
Our tax credits pay the small amount we need to pay and the government pay the rest.
You can be skint and still afford fees.

[captainmarble]

Loads of people do. Most of the private school families I know have only one parent working. Admittedly on a salary higher than fifty grand.

[PurpleTigerLove]

Captain - so private school fees on one salary ? That’s sounds like an even sillier idea .

[Justajot]

@SmileEachDay - I dont envy you at all. It sounds like a nightmare.

[captainmarble]

Why are people assuming that OP's income is the 'second salary'? She doesn't say anywhere that her DH earns more than her.

[SmileEachDay]

Just

Ah I misunderstood your phrasing.

Yeah I know it isn’t. I’m an English teacher 🤦🏻‍♀️