To think putting vat on private healthcare when many people use it because the NHS won't treat them is monstrously cruel

[DervlaGlass]

I know so many people who have had to pay for cancer diagnostics or new joints because they couldn't obtain care from the NHS. Not rich people - people who have to take out bank loans to fund it.

What is wrong with labour.

That's absolutely not the case here and is an assumption many people make. It is simply not the case in all counties and is different across the country.

Even just getting an ECHP is a huge challenge for many and takes many years of pushing and challenging. In the meantime kids are left to be marginalised in mainstream school whilst they wait and you're left dealing with the academic and psychological fall out from that. One family I know had to wait 3 years to get an ECHP.

In my DSs class, over 50% of the kids have a SEN requirement and the parents are scraping the fees together to keep them there. Parents were trying to get the local council to fund their places at private school but they refused and said provision could be made to support them in mainstream education. They lasted about 6 months before they had to pull their child out as their mental health was deteriorating and the teachers didn't know or didn't want to know how best to support them.

Maybe this is one of those policies that they float to the horror of the electorate to make the actual tax hikes look more palatable?

Or they could be mad?

It comes to something when you look at the government of the day and you think the likely answer is the latter.

I paid for private education because my child is autistic. Most people on here didn’t care at all when Reeves slapped VAT on that, happy to label me an elitist etc.

So I’m wondering why I should give a shit if VAT is slapped on private healthcare.

And yes, we’ve had to use private healthcare in desperation to get my mum a hysterectomy.

But since nobody gave a shit about my autistic dc’s education, don’t expect me to give any shits how Reeves hurts anyone else.

Bitter.

And that’s how the UK goes down the drain.

It will be outrageous if they do this. Is it being talked about? I fucking hope not.

Why? My autistic dc’s education was apparently fair game for VAT? So why not this as well?

I moved my child to mainstream private on the verbal recommendation of many exasperated staff members who could not prevent many children beating up my socially awkward ASD child. Could I have got the LEA (Scotland)to fund it? It would have taken about 3 years. 3 years of my child either going to school every day and being assaulted, coming home and self harming, or me giving up my job for 3 years and home educating, isolating my child from all friends.

What you going to do? What as a parent would you choose? Because until you as a parent are in the situation of making this sad choice, you have no idea.

Of course they will do this.

Started with VAT on school fees.

Then VAT on private healthcare.

VAT on university fees next maybe?

Once you open the door then it's hard to justify not applying it across the board.

Did people really not see this coming? I guess a lot of people were gleefully celebrating private school fees going up they didn't stop to consider the big picture and what would come next.

Taxes on digital services would be great, only the UK has been warned off doing this by Trump and Musk. I can’t see us going up against them.

ASD parent here paying for private school (+VAT). No one gave a shit about us when it didn’t affect them. Now their granny might get charged VAT when she jumps the queue for a hip replacement and all hell breaks loose!

Is that happening? I thought not? Not sure about the 'cruel' bit - I have private health through work - as many do - and they can more than afford the mythical VAT. I only used it once for something fairly routine at the suggestion of a colleague and wish I hadn't have bothered! The paperwork and exemptions and co-pays and whatever were all so stressful and I ended up paying money towards something that the NHS would have taken care of just fine. Idiot me.

We have to for our DD because the NHS has no expertise of how to treat her chronic illness!

There are lots of self pay private healthcare patients. What about all the old folk who are self paying for various hip/knee replacements because of the nhs waitlists?

VAT on private schools was in the manifesto and clearly people who voted in the government were ok with that, or at least it wasn’t a deal breaker.

VAT on higher education and private health were not in the manifesto and have never been on the agenda other than that of rumour-spreaders such as yourself. No-one ‘saw this coming’ because it’s not going to happen other than in people’s imaginations.

Well I wasn't gleeful about the vat increases on private schooling. I did kind of expect it though, they'd been gunning for this a long time in opposition.

I am quite surprised this is being floated. They'll pay a bigger penalty for this with the general public.

If they go through with this, then I'll add it to the i.d. card policy as evidence that they have given up on getting another term and have decided to use their time left to inflict as much ideological damage as they can in the years which remain.

Private healthcare should have VAT added, it’s a luxury not everyone can afford.
Just like private schools. If you agree with VAT on them, you have to agree with VAT on this.

lol at healthcare being a luxury.

was my mum’s private hysterectomy a luxury 🤣

I agree it would be odd. But equally are all the other things they say one day and reverse the next. Last week changing ILR was racist, this week its policy.

Yep. And any ‘I have complete faith in..’ statement

Increasing the Jobs tax and cutting WFA weren't in the manifesto - but they did it anyway. But fundamentally there is very little difference between charging VAT on private school and charging vat on universities. There are both fee paying education.

Labour relies/relied on growth.

The very presence of Labour stunts growth.

we’re fucked

Of course. When you hear that the Minister is probably already clearing their desk.

It’s being floated by the Telegraph, Daily Mail and the Express. Not by any actual members of the government who categorically deny it. It’s just the usual press scare tactics: make up a story and force the government to deny it, therefore making people think there must have been some truth behind it all along.

Exactly. It has the same logic as taking out a payday loan and then quitting your job.

Jumping an NHS queue for a private hysterectomy is the same as getting your SEND kid the private educational help they need. The only difference is one recipient is old enough to vote, the other isn’t. Or do you value kids less?

Ideologically there is a vast difference between charging fees on private schools and on universities. From a Marxist analysis perspective, private school parents are class enemies, and students are not.

Christ, to think we've got two months of this sort of thing to go. Then we'll have a few months off before it all starts again ahead of the spring statement. Here are a few other things that Labour aren't doing but which the ill-informed might like to get in a froth about anyway:

• A tax on whistling
• Abolishing Wednesdays
• Free biscuits for trans cyclists
• Slaughter of the firstborn.

One of my clients had a load of their customers take tax-free cash from their pensions ahead of the last budget thanks to baseless press speculation. Caused a load of hassle when they were told they couldn't just pop the cash back in afterwards. But did the scaremongering press that lead them down that path or the moronic customers who believed it take a shred of responsibility? Nah course not, it was all the fault of my client for doing what their customers asked and following the law.