Council spends £8000pa on a taxi due to VAT on private schools

[Iwishicouldflyhigh]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14403627/Labours-VAT-raid-teenage-girl-private-school-council-fund-8-000-taxi-bill.html

So now a place is being taken up in an overscribed school, a 15 year old has had her eduction severely disrupted and the local council has 8k less in the pot.

Well done Labour!!! One of many stories, i'm sure and so predictable.

Not necessarily newspapers these days lift stories off social media platforms.

What behaviour? Sending their child to state education? Why do they need to justify that?

“So basically they cannot really afford all the costs associated with private education for their children and are looking to the local taxpayers to bail them out”

Are you having a laugh?
State education being free and accessible is a universal human right for all children.

If the State which includes the Council do not make it accessible - then they have to fulfil their legal obligation via transport.

Can't the parents get a better paid job? After all that was what all us plebs were advised to do when we were hard hit by the increase in food and fuel costs...

How on earth do people get rich enough to send their kids to private school whilst apparently lacking the basic sense to do contingency planning? Surely any sensible person paying £16k a year for their daughter's education would have a few thousand in savings to cover the VAT for another term or two until a closer state school place comes up?

I just can't understand being able to afford those kinds of outgoings and not having a substantial rainy day fund that could cover exactly this kind of scenario.

No they had multiple photo shoots, in their home, in school uniform, at various different times for these articles.

There's an old saying there but for the grace of god go I, some people could be doing with learning the meaning of it.

We have a child in private and made sure we could cover the fees from savings before we did so as we are very risk averse. Fees have gone up 10% over the past 4 years, then we have the VAT costs added now. Think of a schools costs - staff and buildings. Staff need pay rises due to inflation, and construction costs have skyrocketed recently.

Our school have just introduced a new charge that will cost parents an extra £100/year and she shit has hit the fan. I’m surprised so funny parents are sailing so close to the wind financially.

The only reason this is a headline is because of the VAT on school fees angle.

The fact is any number of SEN kids are taken to school by taxi or other contracted vehicle. Often with a paid escort.

Needs a far wider view than DM style outrage at one case.

But what if it doesn't come up? It might somewhere like London with a transient population, but rurally? There are multiple councils across the country with no available spaces AT ALL in Y7-11.

Lots of private school parents in Y8/Y9 are thinking of jumping ship this year to avoid any disruption in Y10.

Imagine if you suddenly had to find an extra 20% on your mortgage.

You are right, of course. The story makes absolutely no sense in the way that it has been told.

I don't actually believe for a minute that this family had to move their daughter when they did. As you say, they could have waited for a nearby state place to become available. So I can only conclude that they moved their daughter when they did in order to make a political point.

Either that, or the kid was desperately unhappy at her old school and had to be moved quickly, and the parents have just decided to dress it up as being about the VAT because they can.

I’m glad the girl has found a place in a school and is getting transport provided for her.

Perhaps an article like this is being used to cause a divide again and give another reason to have a go at those people that have children with disabilities who's children have to get a taxi to school's far away because there are no places for the children.

Just checked and parents owning stables isn't an exclusion for a local authority having to provide a taxi or other transport when a child has to go to school so far away because of no nearby available school!

The Labour Luvvies politics of envy have no bounds!

I’m always shocked at the absolute spite and vitriol spat out at people who choose to privately educate their children.

It’s a really nasty side of our culture.

That's a wonderful suggestion until you take into account councils deciding that it's better to close village schools and centralise.

Then the next thing will be we'll just plonk the next school in that disused industrial estate, who cares how the kids get there, not our problem.

In Scotland (im guessing England is similar) Legally councils need to provide transport at 2miles for primary and 3miles for secondary.
Most councils operate 1mile and 2miles, except they are trying to push back to the legal requirements, except they are coming up against issues with 'safe walking routes' nobody wants their kids walking through dark allys or dirt paths. One council suggested secondary children should be accompanied if the parents deemed the walking route unsafe - who has time for that? Then they'll moan about the increase use of vehicles out side schools.

But when they have assets and the means to have paid that extra 20% fee increase you have to question why they were emotionally abusive to their dd telling a 13 yr old to make a choice leave your private school or we have to move house ? Then making her the face of a political issue . Poor child

@OhCrumbsWhereNow Imagine if you suddenly had to find an extra 20% on your mortgage.

You mean the sharp increase after a certain event in Sept 22?

Ultimately doesn't the girl have a right in law to be transported to school if it's not local?

20% increases?

Yes she does but it seems her parents have decided not to just quietly accept that help but instead are going public about it so of course opening themselves up to scrutiny and ultimately criticism.

You don't have to be "rich" to send your kids to a private school. It's well within the abilities of lots of people who aren't millionaires/billionaires subject to their incomes and what else they choose to spend money on. Obviously outside the realms of minimum wage workers, but lots of people are earning £50-£100k.

Exactly - that was nowhere near 20%.

But OMG, the moaning. Why didn't people budget for that kind of thing when they took out a mortgage? Or why didn't they buy a smaller, cheaper house so they could easily afford any kind of increase? Shocking... 🙄

@Badbadbunny "The Labour Luvvies politics of envy have no bounds!"

I'm a Labour Luvvie. I have no issue T all with this child getting school transport.

The complainers on this thread seem mostly to be from whatever the opposite of a Labour Luvvie is being outraged at poor people getting taxis to school...

When I took out my mortgage, I planned carefully for all scenarios, including redundancies, long term sickness, a massive hike in interest rates etc. I made sure that we didn't overstretch ourselves in a way that could potentially put our home at risk.

I would expect parents investing in private education to think through similar contingencies. And as the VAT on school fees have been Labour policy for quite some time, the extra 20% would have been an obvious factor to consider. Certainly for a child who is currently only 13 - the potential for VAT would have been clear before she started secondary school.