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.

Loads of kids in rural places are provided with free taxi transport- to and from school. If you live somewhere rural and have chosen to do so, it’s my opinion you should get your child to school - or move. Why the taxpayer is paying to transport kids to school of any type, I will never understand - what a waste of cash.

Are they living in a rural location with no bus/train links that would take her to the new school? I presume so though I couldn't see where it explicitly stated so in the article (may have missed it).

Butchyrestingface

Yes, otherwise there child would be given a bus pass to use rather than a taxi, however bus routes in Lincolnshire are very sporadic and usually go to from the villages to the main cities rather than through other rural locations.

If the government open the means testing box all hell will break lose. It would actually be quite funny if all parents were now told they had to pay for transport to school! Oh the outrage!

We are already seeing people adjust how they work due to tax cliff edges. There will be parents who cannot afford the fees with the increase and some will give up work/go part time when they move to state. Many families pay as they go and any change such as redundancy can mean they have to move their child.

This is simply another consequence of this policy. What I find most worrying is that there seems to be no acknowledgment or planning of what the consequences would be of this and other policies Labour have brought in. The NI increase being a good example.

The people paying all the tax don't want/can't afford to pay anymore. If Labour keep poking them it won't end well.

This is where uneducated people can’t see the consequences of simplistic policies designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator in society.

VAT on school fees just makes private schools more elitist. All it does is hit parents who can’t really afford it in the first place. Mainly parents of SEN children.

Councils have legal obligations under statutory framework to transport children with EHCPs to named schools. You can’t just change that without undoing complex statutory framework and potentially damaging the rights of every disabled child in the country. However, even die hard Labour supporters and supporters of the disabled are calling for exactly that on this thread. That’s because they are not able to understand what they are saying and the complexity of it. What it does show is how quickly people will scream to take away from a vulnerable group if they think that person has more than them. People are just too stupid to realise it.

Which is why the government are coming for DLA and pip next. Play stupid games and win stupid prizes.

It’s not a question of whether she can afford transport - she can. But her claim is legitimate - that’s the point, otherwise it wouldn’t be paid. People claim all sorts they can “afford”. Plenty of kids in state schools could afford private. Plenty of pensioners could manage without the state pension. Plenty of NHS dentist patients could afford private.

Why should they? They pay their taxes, so they are entitled to the same as anyone else. It’s the people living on benefits, never paid tax in their lives and still claiming all these things that are bleeding the system dry.

Why should any parent shoulder the cost of 100 miles round trip a day for their child to attend their closest school with an available place?

Ex-private or not, that is ridiculous. The state has an obligation to provide schooling for children. Transport is one way they do that.

Barriers to education need to be decreased, not increased, and children should not be penalised within state provision because their parents happened to send them private for a time.

I mean I imagine her husband is working abroad specifically in order to reduce his tax bill.

So the private school fees rose to 16k a year approximately. In which case the family can afford 8k a year for the taxi.

I don’t think it’s poor financial planning to have not got the extra funds for a 20% rise on something like school fees mid-year. I also don’t see why these parents should subsidise the state system by paying for a taxi that many other families get for free (and they could be purely funded from benefits or millionaires). Yes it’s a sensational daily mail article but I don’t generally see people donating their money to the state unless they are made to. But obviously parents who can’t afford to send their dc to private school anymore are either stupid dickheads with ideas above their station or horrible fat cats who should give the money they could afford to spend previously to the state freely and without complaint.

This! School taxis is the reason council tax is out of control. Sorry but get your own bloody child to school or home educate.

Yes the can. Point is, they shouldn’t have to - and they don’t have to. They are entitled to the state money. Due to the actions of the state.

But the school fees are still increasing by the same amount year-on-year. The 20% VAT is ONTOP of that. In fact, basic school fees in most schools have gone up massively anyway due to COL, high inflation etc. So it’s not hard to see why all this happening at once could become a tipping point for affordability

What sort of job do you have? Not all employers are so generous.

The question isn't just can she afford a taxi, but wether there would be one that she can actually book at that time as the local council would have block booked them all to take children to school.

I agree but let's not just blame the mother. Both parents have.

How strange. Mrs Lambert had the same issue with her daughter Nicole at the end of last year 🙄

VAT on school fees: ‘We have had to make the decision to pull her out’

School transport is available to any child where there is no suitable school within 3 miles. I think that applies across the country-although I could be wrong.

It is therefore available to this child. I don't see the issue with that.

It would be possible to question the parents' management of the situation. But the transport is a non story.

School transport in my LA for the most part is used to transport disabled children to their special schools
Parents who have a child in such schools often have no say in where their child goes

It’s not even £8,200 pa as she’s starting mid year.

do people really think Labour should base their policies on these weird edge cases that are only an issue for the first 18 months of a policy?

No, if the council don’t want to pay for transportation they need to get their act together and ensure there are enough places available in local schools for everyone. Lots of children that have never been in the private system are missing out on school places, it’s a lottery.

What happens if a child moves to that school catchment from the other end of the country? Do you suggest they pay to transport their child the 25 miles each way too? You are crazy!

VAT on school fees just makes private schools more elitist.

Why shouldn't schools pay VAT? They are a business, therefore should pay VAT

We have both said that if we have to pull our DDs out of PS, we will absolutely make the council pay for transport. We live 5 miles from the local school.

Out of spite and principle would I make the council pay. They can use the 20% VAT they now have to fund it.