To report my private school friend?

[Reeeeee]

I have a friend, we will call her Polly for the purpose of this thread. Polly and I both send our children to an esteemed private school. This term, we were given the option to pay fees up front, which we both did. Polly gets a sizeable discount for her DD as she is part of the bursary scheme at the school. This morning, Polly and I were discussing the Fees in Advance scheme, and she gleefully told me that she no longer needs to hide her income from the bursar as she won’t be assessed again. She admitted she has been hiding maintenance from her ex (over £1,000 a month) as well as self-employed income.

I do not want to see her DD disadvantaged or for any negative repercussions to befall her. However, I feel livid that my friend has scammed the school in this way. My husband and I work incredibly hard to send our DD to the school and it’s not always easy, we have to make sacrifices and go without. Suffice to say, I won’t be spending time with Polly again.

Says the person more interested in themselves than other people…

Makes no sense.

There are private boarding schools that give places to children on full bursaries that have been in living in Care who don’t have family that are able to look after them. It’s not always and often isn’t the latter

I imagined not

There’s your answer. Mind your own business.

For the sake of the child I’d just leave it. Don’t give Polly the time of day moving forward though.

If she getting cash in hand then she won't be declaring it to hmrc. There's a whistle-blower number that would sort that out. Just Google it.

Yes! Also, OP is not a very good friend.

The stress involved of an HMRC investigation may be enough to tip some people into a very dark place mentally.

Shes a single mum.

I can’t understand the vindictiveness and bitterness of some people.

So she’s maybe getting a few hundred quid a month, or it might be less, extra through cash.

So what!!!

Keir Starmer has taken hundreds of thousands in donations and he can’t even apologise for it.

If you have people at the very top playing the system, just like Johnson did, you can’t expect the public not feel like they want to be paying every sodding penny ti HMRC. Fuck knows what the government does with it anyway. One shit decision after another it seems to me.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=nLullGi1Mxo

Is not on because that could be depriving another child, whose parents can’t afford it, of a place

Keir Starmer has taken hundreds of thousands in donations and he can’t even apologise for it

Oh ffs seriously? We know about his donations because he declared them. Can you not see the difference?

Are you having a laugh? They are using a private school? This is about affording and paying a private education! Mine went to the local comp. I pay taxes and earn just over what she gets in maintenance. There have been many many dark times trying to make ends meet. Usually robbing Peter to pay Paul. No one said oh just don't pay taxes, lie and defraud as it's hard times. Either you are projecting or are doing the same but don't give me a hard time as I prefer for everyone to be honest.

Why can’t you just tell your friend how disappointed in her you are instead? It’s not her DD’s fault

Almost everyone does it. The percentage of private school parents on PAYE is very low

She shouldn't have told you because it's not your business. You shouldn't 'do anything about it' because it's not your business. No good will come of it. The school either won't care because they can't prove her income one way or another (you'd be pretty furious if any part of your fees went on paying private investigators to go through parents' bins etc..), or will say they've been told something she can just deny, and it's all rather pointless. There's no outcome here that ends in increased fairness in the world, and plenty where your own daughter, who is your business, ends up upset as it's the girls' who'll finish up falling out when their mums do.

I don't understand this. Everyone who gets paid a salary pays their income tax via PAYE. That would include very high earners like City lawyers. Or are you saying that most private-school parents are business owners?

I am not sure what your 'esteemed school' could do with your information. They have no power to investigate!

what about those who use tax avoidance measures etc, to legally avoid tax ?

@Blanketyre

At the heart of this is a child who will suffer if she has to leave the school, so even if you are 'right', I would suggest showing some compassion for the child's sake.

My guess is that the school’s Trustees may decide to review and tighten up the eligibility criteria. They could start requiring details of maintenance payments from both parents, for example.

This might seem like overkill, but the bursary scheme is probably funded by endowments, grants from charitable trusts, and other donated monies. The school has an obligation to ensure that this money isn’t being misspent or they can literally lose it.

No one’s going to give to a bursary fund that can’t properly identify the pupils who genuinely need financial assistance.

I don’t work for a school btw, but I do work in the nonprofit sector and have applied for numerous grants.

She's a single parent and child maintenance cannot always be relied upon. Leave her alone.

@DeepRoseFish Unless you’re very wealthy, no one’s income can be relied on, anyone could lose their job.

Thats why it’s shitty that Polly is jeopardizing the bursary fund for everyone who really needs it. She must be so self-absorbed to talk about it publicly.

My point is that it is not included in means testing because lots of fathers find ways to not pay anything at all!
OP is a 2 parent family and there is a difference!!!