If you’re charged VAT will you remove your child from their private school? I’m v stressed!

[Liikklu]

We won’t be able to pay the increase. Only hope is asking grandparents for the shortfall which we don’t want to do. Anyone else in a similar boat? Do you think it will literally be a 20% increase on fees or will schools absorb some of it? Our school has said they will address the matter ‘if and when’ it applies.

Lots of people work 'bloody hard' though, some are privileged to earn more for that hard work. Some very well of people also don't work hard at all.

I don't see spite, as already stated.

Thing is, as well as paying £20k to the school to educate our DC, we're already subbing the government an additional £22k (£15k extra income tax on the £35k additional income I need to earn to have £20k take home pay + £7k saving on not having to educate my DC). I give the government £22k more of what I earn than if I sent DC to state school. That's a pretty long way from being a subsidy! Obviously that goes up to me giving the government £26k when VAT is added.

It's worth it, because the education is absolutely brilliant - and is helping my DC to become the best version of herself she can be. Not unfair members-club privilege, just genuine personal growth and improvement.

But if the school have to cut their educational provision by 20%, giving her a worse educational experience with less opportunity to learn and grow, then it becomes less worthwhile. At a certain point of cutting back what they provide, it won't be any better than state + extra-curricular activities and tutoring. When that happens,I may as well cut my working days to part-time, take her to extra-curricular activities in my new free time, and enjoy not working so hard. Unfortunately, the state will be £22k per year worse off. But that's not my problem: I'm obviously going to do what works best for my family, same as everyone does.

That's why this policy is so poor: at 10% of kids switching to state (not necessarily immediately: it's more likely to be that it sways parents not to choose private over the next 7 years) then the state is actually worse off.

Such as Starmer in his elite grammar bubble?

Yes you said. Many are seeing it even if you slide past it for whatever reason.

I've not made any comment re KS.

I'm saying it again because you are quoting me.
It's not spite or envy to point out reality.
Moving on now.

I am comfortable remembering the first thread I commented on this site which was pre Penis Beaker, I also took advantage of a tasty Lemon drizzle cake recipe. Your point is?

Privilege is privilege even if you use more inventive language.

Maybe looking there and see who is literally taking from the state pot to benefit his own child is reality, too?

I can see your point, put you could use that argument for any vatable service. I wouldn’t be worrying about the standards going down - my DC is getting a good education for 7k per year. With the cut I imagine your DC’s school will be getting way more than that. We had to be creative about cuts, your school will too - def not beyond them!

Your statistic is nonsensical. How can London, with many of the poorest wards in the country, have 33% of its children educated privately? The actual statistic is that 33% of adults living in London have, at some time, been educated privately. This just shows how baked-in private school privilege is: they've made social connections back in their schooldays and then ended up in the capital snaffling up the most prestigious - and well-paid - jobs. It turns my stomach.

What I find particularly fascinating is those that imagine Sir Starmer nestled in his Islington elitist bubble, in a two million pound house, having directly benefited from private school education himself has the sheer audacity to claim he is doing this for the poor!!

Knowing full well that the poor will be the ones left paying for this nonsense policy AND it is their kids that will be severely impacted when the unfunded exodus arrives at their school.

It’s just staggering that anyone can see any upside to this!

Inequality will remain exactly the same - potentially it will become even worse.

I work in a private school. We are offering a “fees in advance”- whereby parents can pay upfront for the remaining years of schooling and avoid the risk of an extra twenty percent tax burden. Obviously this only works/ helps if you already have the money set aside for school- I appreciate many parents do not have immediate access to 5/4/3 etc years of fees but it is one option that some parents are exploring. I would bank on the whole amount being passed on. Our school will not “absorb” any extra costs as we are struggling financially which seems to (secretly!) be the case with many private schools. Staff have endured wage freezes for years and in our school and many others the teachers pension has been removed to save money. It is a difficult situation across the board. I’m sorry it is causing you so much uncertainty and anxiety xx

And then they send their kids to the elite grammars and take from the state pot - but no one seems to care about that...

The “take places from other state students” argument is somewhat flawed for at least a period of time though isn’t it? I’m talking about access to the good state schools here. It’s not going to be a scenario where by say 8 kids in Y8 from the local private School have to be withdrawn, so 8 Y8 from the decent local state school get told “You’ve got to leave because someone else needs your space”. Most good state schools are oversubscribed as it is, so these students join a waiting list like everyone else. Not everyone who may leave the private sector is forced to live within catchment area of a good school more than likely they don’t. It’s not like there’s a golden ticket dished out upon leaving the private school ‘sorry you can’t afford it here anymore but as a consolation here’s free entry into any state school of your choice’. They end up going where there’s room for them. Obviously this all changes as the Y1/ Y7 admissions cycle starts.

Many people I imagine will try and circumnavigate this by buying houses closer to the better schools. Adding in stamp duty, legal fees, increased mortgage payments… are they going to be much better off? The winners will probably be those who’s kids have left school and see their house value increase and can now move on and live in the middle of a field somewhere. It’s certainly going to shake things up and I’m personally not convinced either way if it’s a good or bad thing.

I will be keeping my child in private as I have few years left and there would have to be a heck of a lot of cuts made to the provision for it to be as bad as the state offering (which my other kids go to. They survive ok as they have no SEN issues, manage to stay out of the violence / bullying issues and are bright enough to be able to work through the textbooks the I bought them in their own time).

I don't know if it has been raised but we took the independent route because in our Borough not one state school taught three separate sciences, offered a choice of MFL or a classical language. It gave our DC a significant advantage as they both went to Oxbridge. Peers at primary who were as clever, if not more clever, did not. Their primary was a 97% SATs pass rate and Osted Outstanding. It was leafy, middle class and cofe. About 50% of pupils were tutored and that is why such good results were delivered.

Whilst there is a principle that independent schools should not benefit by avoiding a tax they should statutorily pay, if it is levied there needs to be far more honest debate about state school currulums and standards therein.

Finally, if tax is levied on independent schools, let's not forget the fee payers are also contributing to the cost of state education through income tax. I would venture that a corresponding rebate shoukd be introduced and if it is introduced for education, it should also be introduced in relation to the NHS for those who have elected to provide themselves with private health cover.

We don't use private schools. We considered it but have an absolutely lovely local village primary and excellent grammar schools nearby. But many people are pushed into private education because they have bad choices of schools otherwise, or their children are better suited to smaller classes, and they are most likely already making sacrifices to pay so any increase at all will be a stretch. So I have sympathy, no need for people to be so sarcastic and mean.

No, it doesn't deal with the real issues. But it gives more money from people who can more than afford it to the government so that they can start to deal with the real issues. Unfortunately it will take a hell of a long time to unravel the mess the Tories have made.

...and his very expensive house in the catchment area of a great state school.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218978811

No you don't. That's £5030 per pupil per year.

See e.g. the NFF total spend in 2024-25.

There is zero chance that a grammar school is getting three times the amount of funding of other schools. They usually get less because they have far fewer deprived pupils.

I sympathise, but the answer is to massively improve state education. We need as much public money as possible to do that. Why should the privileged have tax loopholes for a luxury not a necessity?

We pulled our two out of an ofsted ‘outstanding’ school because their attitude towards SEN was disgraceful.

we also saw our local secondary go from ‘outstanding’ to ‘requires improvement’ with a pretty dire report describing an unsafe environment. Pretty sure that didn’t happen overnight - the ratings aren’t really worth anything.