You can't change the rules during a game

[GodAtum]

A lot of talk about VAT on private school fees. My view is that it's unfair to change the rules while a child in in school.

Imagine if you where taking a flight and during the flight the pilot can on the speaker saying the price has increased and you need to pay 20% more before we land otherwise you'll won't be able to enter the country.

This VAT change should only be done to new school entrants, not existing children.

Private schools don’t need to pass on all of the increase. They can make cuts. Parents can then decide if it is still worth paying for.

State schools have operated with decreasing budgets and are having to pass the cost on to social care and society. This isn’t a ‘race to the bottom’, this is a way we can try and ensure those at the bottom have their education properly funded.

Exactly. Unless you have millions in the bank, a fee increase or job loss are always a risk.

Tax perhaps a risk many won't have foreseen, but it's there. As is the risk of a change in tax on salary directly that would have made the schooling unaffordable. I wonder what % increase in income tax the 20% on fees equates to for the typical family.

Most schools round here have told parents they will absorb most of the costs.

Nobody's forced to pay school fees. There are other options.

What do you do when your kids school puts fees up for other reasons? Refuse to pay it because you don't want to pay any more than when your kid was first enrolled?

Wrong. Schools legally have to pass on all of the VAT, that's the law.
What they can reduce is fees but as fees pay for teachers, pensuons etc then that's hard BUT schools could offset a small amount of fees against any VAT they can reclaim.

They can not reduce the amount of VAT they charge parents.

Labour have a majority, just get over it. Blame the Tories for being so corrupt and incompetent their vote almost halved.

You accept that there will be yearly rises of 5-8%. You don't expect rises of 30% per year!

Why do private schools need to increase fees by much more than inflation which is more than the increase state schools get each year?

Sorry but I don't believe they can afford to do that unless they are sitting on a huge surplus already. Ampleforth said that but had to back pedal because the finances weren't viable.

Ampleforth though is a particular case because it was stopped from recruiting new students for a while, due to the diabolical state of their safeguarding.

Why anyone would spend money sending a child there is beyond me.

Teacher pay rises
Teacher pensions
Rising cost of water/electricity etc

I have the data that actually shows fees have risen overall in line with inflation over the last 20 years. Will try to dig it out
Just because Labour says something doesn't make it true!!! There was very little scrutiny from the media over their manifesto.

I 100% agree with that. I would never send a child of mine there!
Exactly, no other school has publicly come out and said that they can absorb VAT because most couldn't afford it.

My friend is a head teacher at a prep school in the south west and said they’ve been planning for it for several years. They sent an email to all parents saying there will be an increase in 2025 but they will absorb most of the 20% to minimise impact. A friend with a dc at a different school that runs from nursery through to 6 form got a similar email. Neither of these are Eaton type schools, more the place doctors on 120k a year send dc.

The previous poster was suggesting that private schools increase fees by 5-8% a year, which is much more than inflation, of course they may have been mistaken.

The increase in contributions to the TPS was a stealth tax on all schools by the previous government. Private schools of course have the choice as to whether to continue in that scheme. State schools do not have that choice, and so have to find ways to fund that increase.

LOL. What do state schools do? They have the same costs.

State schools started in the early 2010s by reducing the number of support staff, which meant teachers workload increased, more recently they have cut the numbers of qualified teachers. Neither of these are options for private schools.

State schools have to pay those increases, though. The one thing that's stopped more of those collapsing (and academies are particularly afraid of this as they have to prove financial stability) is the Covid lockdowns meaning they didn't use as much in utilities or cover staff. And the money saved from that has run out.

@twistyizzy when pp said schools could absorb some of the increase that doesn't mean they would charge less VAT than they are meant to, it would just mean the overall fee including VAT is less than the old fee +20% would be and the school would have less money as a result.

So mortgages should stay the same until you've paid for your house? Or your car insurance, house insurance .... health insurance, dare I say.

You’ve had a year to plan, to save, to look round cheaper private schools and free state schools, to argue with your school to lower their prices so the 20% VAT won’t hurt as much.

have you done any of this?

unless they sort it in the next couple of weeks it’s unlikely to start in September. You might get another year. If you can’t afford this particular private school anymore, perhaps stop whinging and start planning? stand in your own two feet etc.

Of course they are options for private schools.

Not at all. We have been told repeatedly that the private sector is much more efficient than public, and so it stands to reason that it wouldn't be possible for the private sector to make such cuts.

😂😂

And where has anyone said that it is acceptable that the state education sector has been so woefully under funded for so many years?

I'm interested also in why no one has been up in arms at the TPS employer pension increases since 2019. They are effectively a tax on any school whose staff are in the TPS, which is all state schools, private schools can choose whether they are in or not.