If Labour win... are your DCs coming out of Private Education?

[MrsJamesMathews]

Sitting here doing some maths.

It's not looking great.

With increased corporation tax and VAT on school fees, I think we'll be having some very awkward conversations with our DCs schools on Friday.

Anyone else worried?

I don't think we'll be able to absorb the additional cost - so my DC will move to state. We'll spend some on tutoring and I will reduce work hours so am around more to support them. Anything left over from what we currently pay will go into pension or into isas to save for a house deposit for them. Maybe we are not the norm (although from friends at school we are all in pretty similar positions) but this policy will cost the government in relation to our situation. Perhaps that's what they want, but it seems an unusual way to go about raising money by implementing a policy that will cost them money.

We have just one year left after getting 3 dc through school thank god.

If they were young we'd have to have pulled them out I would think.

We will have 3 at uni next year so the uni fees taken away will help them hugely. I don't support making university free, but we'll very much benefit from it as a family.

I still don't think Labour is going to win the election. They've had a bounce, but haven't closed the gap. Also, the polls are over the place. There is evidence that some online polls are being manipulated. It's clever because even if your side won't win ultimately, you can use the perception that your ideas are more popular than they actually are to move the debate in your direction and drag the "centre" of politics in your direction.

DS starts in pre-prep in September, we can afford it for now as the fees aren't much more than nursery has been costing us. With 20% VAT I don't think we could sustain paying the fees all the way so would have some very difficult choices to make.

Yes. All 3 will transfer to local schools.
Plus I will quit work - what a relief - and our nanny will be made redundant. (Probably our cleaner too.)
We're in London so that's a huge gain to us.

My tax and national insurance, our nannies tax and national insurance ( employees and employers as she is on a net wage) plus funding of schools.
I've been tired so if there is more of a loss then that's it.
And to those of you who think we don't need a nanny - well yes, we do.
Both our jobs require overseas travel and hours incompatible with childminders or school wraparound care.
We earn well but at the moment I work for my pension as the nanny takes my take home pay, and to keep my job going for the future.
No point if taxes go up.

We definitely can't afford another 20%. It would be another £550 a month. We already don't have flash holidays, cars need replacing etc. We're not struggling day-to-day like some families do, I get that. But there is no fat left to make more cuts.

If my eldest DC wasn't moving from one independent to another in September we'd just be carrying on until the final curtain call as it were.

But what I'm worried about is maybe we should be pre-emptive and moved her to state now. Is continuing with her independent school move just burying our heads and delaying the inevitable?

It's all down to how likely a Labour win is, how likely private schooling becoming VAT rateable is and whether we'll have time to see if we can earn the extra money before the changes are made.

One things for sure, we won't be recruiting any new staff for the foreseeable future as is currently planned.

Lots of people do not send their children to private already, because they cannot afford it.

"But what I'm worried about is maybe we should be pre-emptive and moved her to state now. Is continuing with her independent school move just burying our heads and delaying the inevitable?"

Drama lama.

Labour hasn't even won unlikely too sadly and you are making significant decisions about your dc's education because Labour is unlikely to win? Not convinced.

Oh do fuck off almond. I'm not making any decisions this side of Friday. I'm wondering, considering, brewing, asking for others' thoughts. That's what some of us come here for.

For us I think we could pay the difference in the short term but would not be comfortable staying with private as a long-term decision. When we moved across from state we were very cautious in our planning for fee increases, interest rate rises etc. Looking at a 20% immediate increase plus possible income tax increases and land tax plus the volatility that is likely to come with Brexit, I think it comes uncomfortably close to being far too risky to keep in private in the long-term.

The problem is that we moved to private as DD1 was being horrendously bullied in her previous school (state - I appreciate it can happen in either sector) and it was taking a huge toll on her mental health. Moving to her current school has helped her to heal and given her back her confidence. If we had to move her back to state where we are now it would have to be with the same children who had bullied her and I couldn't risk that either. The other option would be to keep her in private and move DD2 back to state but one/both of us would have to go part-time to manage that as the village school just isn't set up for working parents (we were there for 3 years but I was part-time) also I am very uncomfortable with paying for one and not the other. Essentially I can't see any good way for our current set-up to work.

In reality we would probably move countries too. After the BREXIT ref DH had a lot of soundings from other places but as the girls are settled and my job is working well then we said no but with some regrets. If it is all to be disrupted then we might as well go and we have been putting out feelers again in the past few weeks.

I have never voted Tory, nor have I ever voted on personal finances but I am in a 'too close to call' seat and Labour getting in would have such a negative impact on us that I am considering voting Tory.

The galling thing is that it is all for giving free lunches for children of people who can afford to buy them themselves.

asking for others' thoughts. That's what some of us come here for.

OK Here's mime. That some will not be able to afford elitist education and may even have to sack servants, is not convincing me to vote Conservative.

Maybe JustRich you could manage a bit of empathy for the children who are going to be pulled out of schools where they were happy and settled. Disrupting their education and happiness just to enable an ideologist to offer free dinners to children who can already afford to pay. Oh sorry actually it'll make no money as state places will have to be created for all those who leave. And independent education becomes the preserve of an even more elite minority.

Servants? Oh, here we go. It really does get boring after a while.

There are nannies and cleaners and housekeepers on MN. Many take pride in their work as they provide a valuable service.

JustRichmal There is nothing wrong with wanting private schools closed. Had the Labour manifesto been to close them and bank the money/use it on schooling the children coming into state schools, then you could support. However, the Labour party has banked the additional income from VAT on school fees to spend. If this income is not there, or is eaten up by additional heads in state schools, then they need to find the money elsewhere or borrow or cut spending commitments, hence the comments about the magic money tree. So, given this policy won't raise the money required, what would you like the Labour party to do to fund the gap?

I would close down tax avoidance loopholes.

Still, the quality of state education should improve. As all of these private school children will be forced to go to Requires Improvement schools, because those are the only ones with spaces available, their middle class university educated parents will be in a position to improve standards, pushing the rest of the school with them. It will also level the playing field for university entrance, as there will be fewer privately educated children taking a higher proportion of top university places. This will increase aspiration amongst their state educated peers, as they will see more kids from their schools going into higher education. It's a win-win situation.

Have talked this over with dh and if we can't afford any changes in policies regarding to funding dd education then we will H.ed again.
She is doing one GCSE outside school anyway.
It's a close fit to her current education, far more than any state school could provide.
But she is s happy there, it would be a shame to see social mobility moved and a specialist education the preserve of the very wealthy.
People who can afford fees now are far far more wealthier than me, so you'd have to be in the top percent of income to afford 20% higher.
This will affect lots of children and we should have empathy, whatever their background.
It's no different if the parents are rich or poor if the children are having to leave a school they love and thrive in.

I think the impact will mostly be felt a few years later when families who would have gone private don't even consider it as an option.

Impact on the state system, I mean.

JustRichmal Which tax avoidance loopholes would you close? The largest one for the rich was pension contributions, which the Conservative party has closed.
Which others would you close?

It will also impact significantly on those currently in receipt of bursaries etc who would otherwise not be able to afford private schooling. The schools will need to find ways of keeping costs down as much as possible and cutting bursaries and scholarships is bound to be one of those. So as a pp says, it will actually mean that private schools become the domain of the top earning families again.

Currently most of the parents I know from my DCs school have two working parents. They are making sacrifices to send their children to the school and the majority were not privately educated themselves. They are not swanning about doing lunch between polo matches and throwing their money away on chauffeurs and limos.

Maybe invest your intelligence and energy into your local schools provision then you won't have sleepness nights on the offchance your children may have to be educated with the oiks.

State schools are not all scumbank central with schemey brats. Most people don't educate privately and have well rounded, , educated, successful children. If your children need a leg up, maybe look to your parenting, don't blame Labour.

Yes, it's shit when your children have SEN and can't get their needs met at local state schools, more so when you can't go private.

Especially shit and galling when your SEN child will now struggle even more because of budget cuts to state schools, put in place by a government voted in by the vast majority of parents who use private schools.

Those of you who will have to use state schools if Labour gets in, come and stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of us in calling out for better funding for education and better provision for special needs.

I agree entirely mini. My ds is autistic and currently in state school. I can afford private but the provision for SN's is nowhere near as good. As stated above I'd put him in private education if Tories win as cuts would inevitably mean the loss of his class helper.

I genuinely can't believe some of the people on this thread stropping off to Hong Kong or Monaco (clearly an entirely different wealth league to my family) rather than pay an extra 20% or consider state schools.

Hear hear mini

God forbid, we improve the system for all children, someone may even lose a nanny.

faints