To be completely shocked by this - Bridget can’t tell us the impact of the government’s VAT on Education?

[Sasskitty]

Bridget Phillipson dodges question on impact of private school tax raid

As parents and schools complain of chaos, Ms Phillipson refuses to spell out details of the assessment made by the department for education

Bridget Phillipson failed to spell out the full impact of the government’s private school VAT raid, dodging the question when asked about the possible implications for special education schools.

While she said the government has “looked at all of the potential impacts”, her answer failed to provide any real detail on the expected consequences.

It comes as parents and schools complain about the implications of the tax raid, which came into force on New Year’s Day and is expected to raise £1.5bn for the Treasury.

YABU - Bridget Phillipson has it all in hand. She just didn’t feel like answering the pesky question. The point is to piss rich people off. Leave Labour alone, they want nothing but erm oh I’m not sure.

YANBU - Phillipson clearly has no idea what the impact of VAT on Education will be. Nor does she really care as long as she’s seen to be punishing those horrible rich people. Or even better (it seems) the not really rich ones just trying to improve the education of their children as the available state schools were not suitable.

https://apple.news/AO7fcmrzuRaik4stLaPQxwA

(sorry paywall but there’s not much more in the article)

PS. I’ve removed the poll tally, no one needs to see real data. Do they?

I am with her on this, but not probably for the same reasons.

The level of scare and sob stories there have been over the last few months about this, we really don't know how many children will not go to a private school or leave one to transfer to a state school. Or whether every fee paying school will simply add 20% to the fees, or reduce something, or use reserves for a period of time.

Hang on, the government is putting VAT on private schooling? Why hasn't there been threads about this already?

🤣

I am in favour of the removal of the VAT exemption from private schools.
Private education is a luxury and there is a free state school alternative available.
By far the vast majority of people currently cannot afford private school fees.
The fact that a few more people will also not now be afford them is not really a big issue for most of the UK population - we welcome them to the state school majority.

I like a poll you should have left it ;

I know! And despite all the questions they’ve had to date, Labour STILL they haven’t specified any research or costs/ benefit analysis to support their policy.

Nah. I’m copying Labour. We don’t need data.

It is not an ‘exemption’. Education does not have tax added, in other European countries. It didn’t have tax added here in the UK. Why Labour have decided to Tax Education is bizarre, given they are supposed to be the party of the people. Maybe just, some, people?

Politics of envy carried out by a bunch of lightweights.

It is their policy, it's in the manifesto. A manifesto that got them voted into power with a massive parliamentary majority. They are now enacting that which they were voted in to do

They are not taxing education, they are taxing private education.

Frankly this is just going to turn into the same old arguments about it which essentially boil down to:

"I don't want to pay more tax" vs "private education is a luxury and VAT is paid on luxuries"

On a more general note, do you want governments to carry out the manifesto they are elected on, or would you prefer them to not carry out what they said they would do?

What chaos? The hordes of private school kids that would inundate the state sector seem not to have materialised here. Our very large secondary school have one extra student who joined from a private school.

That’s skewed, the v should be poor policy that won’t do much, or be a negative

Well, that's just your opinion. Zero facts in your statement

Ditto to you for your post.

Plenty of facts in my post.

Labour massive majority
VAT on private school fees in the manifesto

Which of these do you not believe to be factual?

Your v was skewed as I said. It was basically just both your arguments v each other rather than the often stated opposition to the policy

Indeed, not when one can bombard social media with multiple threads about how simply awful it will be for their children.

Back of a fag packet analysis is that if affects about 1.45% of children attending school in the UK (based on reported estimates from those parents reporting they won't enrol them or will withdraw them from private education - about 30% of the 4.5% of children in private education).

But anything up to 90% of education posts on Mumsnet at any given point.

Well, it's one of a few policies on which they haven't carried out proper impact assessments. They don't seem to have taken into account that several of the schools they most hate will now be able to claim back millions of pounds worth of VAT, and it wasn't even forecast to raise that much in the first place in the scheme of things.

I don't care about the policy, it doesn't affect me, but they have sent out so many lies mixed messages about it which worries me more as it really bolsters the impression that they haven't got a clue what they are doing.

The money raised will not be enough to pay the the teachers they claim.

One minister said they had to do it to stop a run on the pound, which is clearly bollocks.

Reeves has claimed on at least five occasions that the money raised will be ring fenced for state education, when the treasury has said it won't.

Introducing it immediately, instead of the next academic year is unnecessary and plays into the hands of the critics who say it is just class spite.

Another bloody thread on this. The government needs to raise money to fund collapsing public services. Private education is a form of discretionary spending. Most other discretionary spending is liable for VAT. Now schooling is too. There is no intrinsic injustice in that. And since the poorest in society generally don't pay school fees, it feels like it is a reasonably progressive move.

There isn't any form of taxation that doesn't put some degree of burden on some demographic or other. I can't on god's earth see why this particular demographic is so repetitively, obsessively defended in a million threads that look like they have come from Agitprop Central -- particularly given that many people even within the demographic recognise the reasonableness of the tax.

Online political discussion is becoming so distorted and debased. Soon there will be no sharp distinction between this kind of political agitprop and the weird and wonderful world of conspiracy theories.

Of course she can’t answer, it was an election tactic to draw in ultra lefties with absolutely zero consideration for the practicalities.

Im not at all against private schools being taxed, I think it’s shocking they have charitable status. But FFS it should be done only if the benefits outweigh the negatives, and clearly that’s not the case.

It’s just not sob stories though. My relative teaches in private and they’ve just been informed of a major redundancy exercise. It’s serious impacts on real people. Just because you don’t know them, it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Would you call my post a sob story? BTW relative lives in same street as the school so a job change will be a problem as doesn’t drive.

Until the state sector can adequately support all students with SEN and needs based on ND and other issues there isn't a free alternative for all and it isn't therefore a luxury. IF this policy would solve that so I and others like me wouldn't have to run into debt to keep our kids in a classroom and could keep them in state, Id be all for it.

Can we please stop referring to female members of the government by their first name? I get that a lot of people don't like Labour, but stop it with the misogyny.

I think it’s odd posts like this one expect everyone to agree with your view.

impact of private school tax raid
of the drama!
If you can't accommodate the increase maybe you never really could afford it.
Private education is a choice not a right, there are 1000s of children in desperate need of SEN placements and here we have endless threads bleating about school fees, entitled bores.