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.

I doubt most people with children in private schools have all of the fees saved up, no mortgage and some? I suspect that is the minority of private schools parents.
Most will be paying out of income, still have a mortgage and the VAT and recent fee rises and more to come due to NI/business rates, will simply cripple these families, so plenty of people will be moving their kids to state schools.

My local private school was 13k at secondary level when my now 16 year old was in Reception. Same school with VAT is now 27k. Some of the kids started then - so it has more than doubled. I think with extra mortgage costs, general recession feeling, I really highly doubt many people will be able to afford this in the future, especially if they have more than one child. It is the larger families that are going to be hit. They cannot make the whole family cut back for the sake of one child attending private school unless perhaps SEND is involved. I suspect this family simply feels they are representing many others like themselves so they have been willing to share their story openly. Surely it is good for other families in the same situation to see they are not the only ones?

In addition, a 13 year old needs to be involved in understanding why they have to move schools and where they may go. If it takes painting Labour as the big bad milk snatcher, so be it. I would do the same if I were the parents. Had she been able to stay were it not for the VAT, of course they are going to blame Labour.

Well no, these things don't just happen.

Certain spiteful politicians are employing the politics of envy and enjoying 'sticking it to the rich kids'. Morally dubious, financially illiterate and politically inept.

It did not need to happen and it certainly didn't need to happen in this way.

In the meantime I thoroughly applaud the parents managing to make the best of the situation they have found themselves in.

Or at a government which implemented a policy at supersonic speed which has led to a situation where she had to leave her school? This has been implemented faster than any other policy and without due diligence. I suspect most schools (let alone parents) believed this would be implemented in the next academic year and that would have allowed the family to build up some money to pay for another year, before removing her for sixth form.

Anyway, this was seen as very important to the Labour Party and that is their choice as the party in power. However I quite understand why those affected by their policy are enjoying watching some of the fall out and why this family would want to showcase it.

Weird that those apparently affected by the policy would "enjoy watching the fallout". Sounds like they're more interested in their own moral outrage about being asked to pay more tax than they are actually concerned about the wellbeing of their kids. Very odd.

You're probably right, though. It's very evident that the mum in the Daily Fail article is out to prove a point, regardless of the impact on her poor daughter's privacy. It's just a pity for her that she doesn't have a stronger argument to support her position. I guess she can but try.

The comment about feeling angry because of the Daily Mail sad face is ridiculous. She hasn’t provided a valid reason for feeling so aggrieved. It would be helpful if people could own their prejudice. You explained that you disliked private schools. That explains your subsequent comments and fair enough. Daily Mail sad face outrage, not so much. The family are claiming what they are entitled to claim.

Nah... not going to feel sorry for this woman. You live in the countryside you know the score. Distance is built in to your life. If she'd been disabled suddenly and unable to work their child would have come out of private and into state schools... she wouldn't have been crying crocodile tears to the Daily Fail then.
You can't afford it now love. Suck it up buttercup. Move house. Get a better paying job. Apply to a cheaper school.

They've provided multiple reasons. But you seem to think they should keep offering until you agree with one of them.

I was formerly a very senior Civil Servant, and I still work in a sector that cuts between several Govt departments. It's always a disastrous mess when one area of Government implements a new policy without properly considering and consulting on the impacts of that policy on other Departments. It seems pretty obvious to me that in their rush to bring in this new tax, they failed properly to consider the unintended consequences on (for example) Local Authorities. Whitehall is notoriously high-handed toward local Government.
Who cares if LAs incur huge costs- that they cant afford- transporting displaced ex-private school children, so long as they can show they've implemented this populist policy at warp speed? Who cares if the changes overwhelm SEND systems so long as Briget Phillipson gets her soundbite at the earliest possible moment?
Of course affected parents were anticipating more time to prepare for the blow. But it's also really poor to act in such haste the other central and local Government bodies weren't prepared for the impact either.

She has ‘sucked it up, buttercup’. She didn’t need to move house or get a new job. She has found her daughter a lovely state school (saving them thousands in school fees) and their even travel costs are being paid.

I don’t think it is ‘sad face’. I think it is ‘well, your stupid policy has backfired with us, hasn’t it?’ face. Good on them for making the best of a difficult situation which was forced upon them and good on them for publicising it to highlight the problems caused by a policy being rushed through without time to consider the implications.

The knock on impact the tax will have on state schools and pupils will be catastrophic.
Everyone gets pushed down a rung on the ladder except for the super rich who can comfortably absorb the rise.
It will push up house prices in catchment areas of good schools even more.

It’s an absolute shit show.

How many people foresaw the cost of living crisis? We’d baked a possible VAT introduction into our figures from 2019. We didn’t expect all our other outgoings to increase so dramatically. I’ve managed to get a better paying job, but that’s not an option for all parents.

I disagree. Curlew Kate offered multiple reasons. I replied. We disagreed. It was good to have a debate about something we both feel strongly about and I’m not bothered if we agree or not. This particular poster is relying on emotion (it’s not fair, don’t like Daily Mail sad face) and there is nothing to which I can respond.

I don't know, I grew up in the 1970s and 80s, when inflation was raging and interest rates were sky high, so for me, it's just basic common sense when making a major financial commitment over an extended period to allow for the impact of unforeseen macro economic forces as well as changes in personal circumstances. Do people not build in a buffer for this kind of stuff?

I stated multiple reasons. Emotional
abuse of a child , circumnavigation of the official application system which verges on fraud as well as daily mail sad face.

Can you imagine if a bursary pupils parents were economical with the truth when applying for a private school place and got an award . I doubt that would go down well or be accepted as ‘they were only doing the best for their child good for them ‘

@Burnoutforever "Can you imagine if a bursary pupils parents were economical with the truth when applying for a private school place and got an award . I doubt that would go down well or be accepted as ‘they were only doing the best for their child good for them "

Or if someone twisted the facts while applying for PIP or some other disability benefit because they were only doing the best for their child....."

Exactly !

Do you know they have been economical with the truth? They have followed procedures and didn’t need to lie (which is what you are accusing them of doing)? They have taken a state school place after being placed on the waiting list. Done.

And if a bursarial applicant was lying, I would expect the award giver to be checking carefully to winkle them out.

Well said 👏👏👏👏, it just smacks of Labours desperation to get votes in.

( Like their recent announcement on the extra nhs appointments.Their Figures compared with previous months when doctors were on strike and appointments cancelled. Do they think we’re all so stupid not to notice…..I think they do I’m afraid. )

Standing up for your rights isn’t considered emotional abuse if you are middle class. It’s exactly what one teaches the kids, they have rights/they matter and they should fight for it. As well as the confidence to navigate “the system” to your advantage, in whichever way possible. Nothing they have done appears illegal.

This is quite normal for a certain type of parent and as the Education Secretary previously said, they want more of this/not less in state schools. They will get more of it and should celebrate it.

"She has ‘sucked it up, buttercup’. She didn’t need to move house or get a new job. She has found her daughter a lovely state school (saving them thousands in school fees) and their even travel costs are being paid."

My point remains that these are the things people say to poor families all the time...

Not happy in the mould ridden council house? Get a new job, move house, clean harder...

Unhappy with the local state school, move house, get a new job, apply somewhere else...

This family are taking £8000 from the council for transport that they can clearly afford themselves - that's not a year of private school fees - and denying a SEND kid a TA or a LAC a support worker in school. Think what £8,000 buys in a state school!

And you want to blame Labour because they are taxing rich people. Give your head a wobble.

I do consider it emotional abuse to say to a 13 year old that they need to decide their home or their school ? That’s cruel. It’s for the parents to discuss and make a decision and then break the news to the child not make her feel responsible in that way.

There’s also the cost of that kids education in state.
In total it all comes to £17500/year

But that’s what they are entitled to.
Lots of parents could pay towards education, but don’t
Lots of parents could pay for school transport but don’t

Education and the right to it in this country is not means tested.
Perhaps you think it should be 🤷‍♀️

as an aside let’s not forget for every kid in private school the tax payer and local council is saving more than £8000 every year on not having to pay for them.

But Labour's policy has now meant that the taxpayer has to fund this child for the next 3-5 years at c.£7,000 a year instead of the parents paying it all.

That's £35,000 that could have given lots of SEND kids a TA or LACs a support worker in school.

Think what £35,000 buys in a state school!

Add the transport on top... wowzers.

And guess what, if 10 children move to state from private in Y9... that's £350,000 coming out of the education budget.

Yep, I blame Labour for this.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow - I do hope someone eventually sits down and does the full Maths on this policy. I do wonder how many families will go from massive net contributors (via tax and paying for the education of their own DC) to net takers as a direct result of this policy. If you have 4 DC like me, you have to be paying quite a lot of tax to make up for the state education they are entitled to. We do, but plenty of others do not.

It was already baked in to the calculations that some kids would move from private to state, so the costs of this were already factored in. It's too early to say yet whether the numbers of children leaving will be in line with government estimates.

As for the transport costs for this one individual child? They won't be replicated for all of the kids who switch sectors, so I doubt that there will be any real impact on the bigger picture. I can see why those opposed to VAT think it's a good story to focus on, but it's the big picture that will matter in the end. And none of us have seen the aggregated figures yet, so it is hard to give any definitive view on whether the policy will be a net contributor to the treasury or a cost. Time will tell.