If VAT is added on Private School Fees, then it will be added onto University fees as well

[AgathaCrispee]

Does it worry you that this new policy of adding VAT on educational fees will also be applied to university fees as well?

AIBU to think this will put university out of the reach of the majority of families who will support their kids through Uni?

Also, for those who do go the level of debt they will come out with will be really big.

If they can apply VAT to private school educational fees then they've setup a case for Independent schools argue that it must be applied to Uni as well.

Is this going to create a situation where only the wealthy can send their kids to Uni?

I'm wondering why no one is asking this question!!

Anyone who thinks Labour is going to slip through a 17% rise in university fees under the auspices of VAT on school fees just doesn’t understand politics very well.

Well yes, exactly.

But the tories are desperate and speculative post-truth bullshit is the only thing left at this point.

And it doesn’t matter that 90% of posters have come on this thread to point out that the OP is spouting nonsense; the seed is now planted.

Classic populist playbook. I’m guessing we’re going to see more of this on MN in the coming months.

I don't think they will slip any increase through.

I think it will be used as a legal challenge to adding VAT onto private school fees, which will open up scrutiny on University fees and by the law of unintended consequences could make University fees liable for VAT.

Don’t be silly.

It’s just a question

Labour could even..

Clarify in a statement

I know it’s not their forte but maybe time to practise

Yep.

Mumsnet HQ

Please can you confirm that I am a long term poster who has name changed.

I think we need to put the accusations that I'm a Tory activist to bed.

This is an important discussion that many people are interested in.

I've reported this post as well.

Good on you op. People don’t like questions on here Labour might have to clarify 🫨

Read the thread title: If VAT is added on Private School Fees, then it will be added onto University fees as well

Thats not a question, that’s a statement.

A bullshit, shit stirring statement

There’s about four questions in the op

How precious people are

It's okay, it's just an attempt to shut down a political discussion.

We need to discuss political proposals more not less. If there's clarity provided then there's less concern. At the moment it's just banner headlines on a bus, which concerns me because its not been thought through.

There are only 5 private universities that take no public funding - the charitable University of Buckingham and Regent's University London, and the profit-making University of Law, BPP University and Arden University

Even if they added VAT it doesn't mean student tuition fees would have to increase. The government contributes to fees anyway so they could just contribute more to make up for the VAT charge. It would all be a bit pointless to charge money and then give it back though which is one of the reasons it won't happen.

The fact that so many people on this thread don’t understand that VAT and charitable status are two separate things and that you can have one without the other shows why we need to have these threads. It’s quite worrying that there are people wanting the thread to be deleted.

Yes it’s not well known

In everyone’s defence even Starmer got it wrong and decided against ending charitable status

It doesn’t need to be deleted, the opposite it needs to be clarified and talked about

@Lindaofoxford I don't remember that, what friend?

As for the MN community helping me, LOL

I suppose I'll change my name again then, ho hum

On the subject of uni loans this is pertinent reading https://ifs.org.uk/publications/higher-long-term-interest-rates-and-cost-student-loans#:~:text=The%20spread%20between%20the%20government%27s,graduates%20who%20repay%20in%20full.

1. The cost of government borrowing as measured by the 15-year gilt yield has risen from 1.2% to 4.0% over the past two years. Relative to expected RPI inflation, this is a 3 percentage point increase. As the interest rate on student loans is now the rate of RPI inflation, this means that the government can expect to pay 1.6 percentage points more in interest on its debt than the interest rate it charges on student loans. Two years ago, just before the most recent student loans reform, it could expect to pay 1.4 percentage points less than the rate of RPI inflation.
2. This increase in government borrowing costs translates to an increase in the expected cost of student loans including financing costs of more than £10 billion per year. With borrowing costs as at the end of 2021, the government could have expected to earn a total net profit of £3.2 billion on student loans to the 2023 university entry cohort, arising from the positive spread between the interest it charged on student loans and the interest it paid on its debt. With today’s borrowing costs, this interest rate spread is negative, and the government can expect to make a loss of £7.3 billion.
3. Concerningly, this extra cost is not reflected in either of the government’s official measures of the cost of student loans. The ONS measure does not take the cost of government borrowing into account at all. The DfE measure that underlies the so-called RAB charge uses a backward-looking measure of borrowing costs, which does not yet capture the sharp rise in gilt yields over the last two years.

Admittedly we haven’t seen any manifesto yet, but I do think it’s a genuine question to ask where all the funding is coming from to finance all the spending plans. At the moment, we are being told that taxing private schools and non doms is the answer to all the country’s woes. It really isn’t. To increase spending on state services to any meaningful level will involve decreased spending elsewhere, borrowing more, or raising taxes (be that income tax, national insurance, VAT etc).

If the Labour Party are planning to abandon the longstanding VAT education exemption, and thus going against EU law, it’s a valid question to ask what else they might do.

@MyOrganisationIsCaptured don’t worry about it it’s a frustrating policy

.

Our Government is losing money on student loans at worrying rates and they are therefore incentivised to deter many from going uni.

They will increasingly try and put higher education costs onto employers.

As a fellow lawyer, I was surprised that it took Starmer so long to work out that ending charitable status would be problematic. It certainly didn’t instil any confidence in me voting for him.

The whole thread is completely doolally. Charitable status is a total red herring.