To be glad that the VAT on school fees

[Shaketherombooga]

Is now going to be happening in January? what’s the point in stalling it? I think it’s one of many decisions that we just need to get in with.

YABU - it’s SO unfair. Labour hates ‘strivers’ etc etc

YANBU - Yup, Labour said they are taking away tax breaks for private schools, so let’s get on with it.

It's pointless. They will have to spend the money on more space, teachers and resources in state schools.

It was only ever to gain the votes of envious peasants.

How much will it cost the department of education to put an extra chair in every third class ?

£7800 a year it will cost them for each pupil to be added into state school.

'It was only ever to gain the votes of envious peasants.'
Soon a lot of independent parents will be 'jealous peasants' too.

No, you are talking about the allocation of funds.when the department gives money to a state school, state education is neither richer nor poorer.
The cost is almost nothing

The Labour government is making a grand gesture which no doubt won votes.
@BallooningInTheSky I doubt that any voter said "I wasn't planning on voting Labour but VAT on education has swung it for me". This is some red meat thrown at the Corbynite wing of the party to keep them happy.

We are right on the edge of catchment for a decent school. I can see enough kids that would have gone private going for this school and our kids missing out. Not overjoyed by the plan that’s for sure.

VAT on school fees isn’t meant to improve the lives of children or families anywhere in England.

@LoremIpsumCici it's helpful to see you admit what we all knew.

@DdraigGoch
@LoremIpsumCici

"VAT on school fees isn’t meant to improve the lives of children or families anywhere in England."

I think this raises a critical point. Traditionally left was about trying to improve equality in society by improving the lives of the less well off.

The policy of VAT is not designed to raise revenue, it's not designed to improve the amount of money spent on education instead it's about bashing the rich and reducing the access to and numbers attending private schools because it's not fair that the rich are getting a better "service / product " simply because they can afford to pay for it.

So rather than address inequality by bringing the poor up this is a clear example of addressing inequality by bringing the rich down.

This is incredibly worrying as a concept and a policy as it sends the message to anyone of wealth or ambition that you are the problem.

used to be about

@1dayatatime indeed, it's a race to the bottom

But the politics of the left has traditionally been about improving the lot of the less well off.

For the first time this policy is about a punitive bashing of the rich with no benefit to the poor other than a sense of "ha - they deserved it".

This is horribly divisive and sends a clear message to anyone of wealth or ambition in the UK that they are not welcome or liked.

I have seen people online say this. I don’t know if they meant it.

I dont think the majority of people who are or become richer than others is down to just “luck”.
DH works an 80 hour week. He chose a boring unfulfilling career with anti social hours purely so we could enjoy a luxurious lifestyle.

You seem very angry about a sector which you don't use and which doesn't impact you. Perhaps you're not confident in your decision not to use the private sector.

What is there to be gained by disrupting happy children? The IFS admit it's going to raise a tiny amount of money and won't make meaningful difference to public services.

You say "I know many people, us included, who could afford to ‘go private’ but decided not to." Presumably then you have at least £20k per child "spare" money per year, and yet you decide to use state education costing the taxpayer around £7k per year. That's your decision and you are perfectly entitled to do that. Why should those parents who are scrimping and saving to fund their child's education themselves (often failed by the state sector) be the ones to pay yet more tax, and yet you don't have to pay a penny more for the state service you use when you have tens of thousands of pounds a year spare?

We do not get "tax relief". We just don't pay a tax penalty. My children's education is costing the taxpayer £0. Meanwhile there are multi millionaires using the state system at a cost to the taxpayer of £7k per child. The taxpayer is not subsidising anyone at private school. They are, however, subsidising those who choose to use the state system regardless of how wealthy they are.

So yeah, no one should be able to exempt themselves from tax by the luck of being or becoming richer than others.

Luck?

My husband and I are both from working class backgrounds.

I had very supportive and engaged parents, therefore I went to university and until recently, worked in a field relevant to my degree.

My husband had a incredibly traumatic childhood (alcoholic parents, domestic violence in the home etc) and university was never an option for him. He started working as soon as he possibly could to get himself away from his home environment.

He built a business from scratch. He would leave our home at 5am, come home around 7pm, and work in his office until around midnight - for years. When the business well surpassed my earnings, that was time for me to get on board and I gave up everything that I had studied/worked for professionally to not only do all of the childcare, but to share the workload with him. Even now, he still works 7 days a week - on average around 80 hours. There are no breaks, even when we are on holiday.

That isn’t luck - that is hard work, which for him, is a trauma response. He is a workaholic and has been in therapy for years. It is very difficult for him.

Do you know many people who built successful businesses working Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, because I certainly don’t.

I am lucky to be born in the U.K., in this era. I am lucky to have two healthy children. I am lucky to have good health. I am lucky to have a wonderful family. But my lifestyle isn’t down to luck - far from it. My children may attend private school, but I’m sure they would rather see their father more often.

It was only ever to gain the votes of envious peasants.

It's this sort of statement that makes people who were not bothered about VAT either way much more likely to support the policy. 94% of families use state schools but we are just "peasants", inferior to that tiny minority who use private schools. Charming.

Actually I have always thought forcing certain richer people into contributing to their child’s education is a good thing but not via private school. For instance, If your house is worth over a certain amount and your child’s school is state and rated good or outstanding You should have to pay an extra tax of £10k per child per year to go towards schools with lower ratings to help them improve.

Thats nearly everybody then-90% of schools are now Good or Outstanding.

Sick to death of privately educationing parents declaring the state system is awful. It isn’t. The vast majority of privately educationing parents use private education to give their children the unfair advantages it brings. They are now pissed off they might not be able to so are trashing the whole state sector.

Everybody can see this for what it is.

If 90% of state schools are good or outstanding then why is the government so desperate for the vat money to improve them? It's the government talking about the problems in state schools not private school parents.

It's not a personal thing. It's societal.

I know you want an argument, but the parents at dds private school are rich enough to not be bothered. The idea of them sending their dcs to state school is laughable 😆

I agree with another poster who said - let's see how much it benefits state education before hailing it as a great idea. If it really helps to improve state education then great.

Don't all parents pay tax which goes to state education anyway? Even private school parents.

Teachers and support staff need pay increases, buildings they Tories left to crumble need improving….

Needing to spend money doesn’t downgrade schools to requiring improvement.

Labour has done a right job on you. You should be ashamed of your comments. They ooze bigotry.