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.

Just a £100 a year increase is causing problems. That's ridiculous when mortgages move by so much.more.

How do you know they have assets that enable them to do that? Do you have access to their financial information detailing any outstanding debts?

As a governor at an English secondary school, and as a parent who moved into a very close indeed to a local primary school when my children were small, I can tell you categorically that schools in England don’t keep spaces available “just in case” someone moves into the local area.

No I don’t I’m making an assumption as they have ponies.

Significantly higher than 20% for many, many people. So not need to imagine.

This would have resulted in a monthly mortgage repayment of £1,262 if you were purchasing a semi-detached property in the UK at the average December 2022 price of £286,000, with a mortgage term of 25 years. This is a £481 (61%) increase in the monthly repayment compared with the corresponding monthly repayment estimate in December 2021.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/articles/monthlymortgagerepaymentsup61foraveragesemidetachedhomeintheuk/2023-03-08

I am not sure what we are meant to be upset about here.
That school transport exists?
That a parent is using it?
That this poor girl has to travel 25 miles to school?

If they don't live close to a school, then they get transport, the same way any child would. It doesn't really matter that she was privately educated up to this point, loads of people get transport.

My son is severely autistic (along with some other significant health issues) & is in a SEN school an hours drive away because no local schools have the ability to look after him. Due to a car accident I’m also disabled & am not mobile. How would we be able to get that child in a wheelchair (whilst using a wheelchair/mobility scooter) to school on x3 buses that would take over 3 hours each way to school? My husband would have to give up work to spend over 6 hours a day on the school run just because our council doesn’t have available schools

It seems very short-sighted of the parents to allow newspapers to publish their daughters full name and photographs of her. It looks like they also went to The Times and The Telegraph back in January.

In The Telegraph article, they say that the VAT change means that her school fees would have increased £1,090 per team, but then they also go on to say that her mothers leaving her job has resulted in £2,000 monthly in lost earnings. A lot of things don't add up here.

This is the poster family for VAT on education - managed to get into three separate Sunday papers (Times, Telegraph and FT) recently with a story full of inconsistencies. The mother is involved in the Education Not Taxation group.

And the child posed in the school uniform of the new school (which is out of county as I remember?). The family lives rurally and certainly managed to afford some very expensive hobbies, despite claims that ‘I was worried they were going to sell the house’.

Telegraph: https://archive.ph/XH6GN

Times: https://archive.ph/jueXg

FT: https://archive.ph/uckAq

Wait, so this isn’t actually happening? It’s all faked?

Precisely! Not to mention the trauma for the child involved.

That VAT on private schools fees was justified because it was meant to raise money, and in this case (as in many) it is doing the opposite. Of course, a single case doesn’t mean the assumptions in the ‘independent’ report written by the best man of a government minister were wrong…

The trauma to the child has entirely been exasperated and largely engineered by her parents telling her that it was her decision as to whether they sell their house or not to fund her schooling, going public with her story and allowing the press to take and publish photos of her in school uniform.
It’s disgusting grabby parenting.

I have no problem rich or poor people getting taxis if they fall within the rules. My point is that the rules need to apply to everyone, rich or poor, unless there is specific provision made (and agreed/debated in Parliament) for exclusions/exemptions. If a billionaire qualifies for any kind of state benefit then they're entitled to it. Full stop. If people don't like that, then they need to follow the rules of democracy and Parliament to campaign for it to be changed.

Are there two girls moving schools, Nicole and Ava? 13 year old twins?

So you’re trying to justify this policy by drawing an equivalence to the effects of Liz Truss’s mini-budget, and think that somehow supports your argument? 🤣

This is just one of several entirely foreseeable consequences of "back of the fag packet" politics of envy. Just like the NIC hike, just like IHT on farmers. If the politicians aren't capable of understanding human behaviour then they need to get a different job as politics is ALL about human behaviour and consequences of the actions of the politicians.

It was blatantly obvious that VAT on school fees would be detrimental in the big scheme of things, i.e. increased costs overall. Likewise blatantly obvious that such a massive hike on NIC would hit the employment market and economy. Either the politicians are too stupid to realise it (and therefore unfit to govern) or they knew the consequences but instead of doing what's best for the country, they decided to play the politics of envy card to appeal to their core supporters instead.

In The Telegraph article, they say that the VAT change means that her school fees would have increased £1,090 per team, but then they also go on to say that her mothers leaving her job has resulted in £2,000 monthly in lost earnings. A lot of things don't add up here.

What doesn’t add up? The increase was £1090 per term (presumably just until the summer, after that fees would go up even more) but the lost earning would have needed to cover the whole fees not just the increase. The £1090 increase would mean equivalent annual fees of around £25k vs a £24 income.

agree.
also - what a surprise this is in the daily fail.
It’s definitely not ‘one of many’ op. This is the sort of scare mongering the daily mail run all the time- surely you’re not sucked in by it?? It’s an incredibly rare situation and the parents’ can definitely afford it imo. Ridiculous sensationalised and biased ‘reporting’.

The poster who calls this ‘trauma’ - this is what’s wrong with the parenting culture today! This is not ‘trauma’ by any stretch!!! Seriously

I think a lot of metropolitan Labour voters who live in their urban bubble have no idea that the UK actually exists beyond Watford…and that there are actually rural communities with no public bus service, let alone a tube station.

I think that was a mistake and it’s avas middle name

The VAT charges were introduced by Labour with the intention of out pricing private school parents so they have to use state schools. This family are now unable to pay the fees (which is exactly what Labour wanted) and are entitled to a state school place. There are no state school places near to them and they have been lucky to get a place in a school further afield. This decision was forced upon them by the government, so they are perfectly entitled to claim for travel expenses, even if they could afford to pay them - it wasn’t their decision to put up VAT after all. Similarly, why should they ‘homeschool’? This isn’t the family’s problem to solve and they are as entitled to a state school place in the same way as any other child in the country. The only difference is they have been saving the state money for nine years.

Anyway, this is exactly what Labour wants. Adding VAT to fees has little to do with raising money and a lot to do with appeasing the far left of their party and destroying the nasty private schools. They don’t care how much money they make or don’t make from VAT on fees. Let the family take all they can.

It's in the daily mail so a huge pinch of salt required.

Well, that was an entirely predictable outcome of Labour's policy. The politics of envy comes back and bites hard. And I am socialist who says this!