VAT private school requirement to give one terms notice to leave

[KHB]

We have four children who are educated in the private sector. When we did our sums prior to the VAT announcement we could just about cover the fees whilst making many sacrifices to enable us to afford it. We hoped the VAT would be introduced in September 2025, as did the schools we attend, giving us time to work out whether we could afford to continue and give notice to leave if required. Now this has been brought forward to January, the additional cost to us due to VAT is £8850 for this school year alone (spring and summer term 2025). We simply cannot afford this.

Our eldest is due to start senior school in a few weeks time at the start of September (year 9). This school is the most expensive of all the fees we pay. We have made the difficult decision to pull him out and move him to our local state school, who have been incredibly helpful in finding us a place last minute and even allowing us to look around the school during the holidays.

However we are left in the situation where the senior school we are leaving (before we have even started) insist that we pay a full terms fees for pulling our child out without giving the required one-terms notice. My view is that the immediate cost of school fees has increased beyond everyone's expectations, and it would be incredibly detrimental to our son's education and his mental health for him to attend for just one term before being forced to move to a different school. I have written to the bursar to ask him if he would exercise his discretion and consider waiving this requirement. However, I have received little sympathy.

I have heard that some schools are waiving the term's notice requirements to allow parents, like us, to move their children with immediate effect if they can no longer afford to continue paying their school fees. I would be interested to know how other parents have been treated? Does anyone know if there is any scope for legal action to fight the terms and conditions? I would be grateful for any positive contributions. Thank you.

We're moving schools in September and have been treated the same. I never expected anything else though, we're just cash cows both to the govt and schools.

Surely you never expected anything else because you signed a contract to that effect?

Tbf private schools can’t exist without the cash!

Goes to show that contracts mean something…

I should imagine they will persue it. They need the cash and you are contractually obliged. Set a precedent by letting you ‘off’ and they will have to do the same for others. They can’t afford it, it isn’t their fault, you are liable.

It doesn't work quite like this if you're competing internationally for a private school.

Stop gloating. Did you read the OP? The cost of this is nearly £9k a year to her family and they’re having to make difficult decisions. You spouting “well you did sign a contract…” when the government imposed an incredibly expensive policy on much shorter notice than they were advised is really unhelpful. Freedom of choice is being taken away from many families, that’s never something to gloat about.

They very likely have a specialist debt collecting agency that they will just pass the details too and sadly, if parents can't pay, it's not unheard of for a charge to be put against their home.

Best hope is someone else takes the place, or noone else leaves so the school meet you half way..

Freedom of choice is being taken away from many families, that’s never something to gloat about.

That was true when OP could afford the fees though…. & fees have rocketed since Covid anyway.

I’m not gloating.

Nobody “advised” OP that the VAT would apply from sep 2025, that’s just what she hoped.

It’s simply untenable for schools to let parents off this fee, or they would need to do it for any parent who asked.

And if they were going to make an exception, I doubt it would be for a parent who has never and now will never pay them any fees - so PP’s comments about being treated as a cash cow don’t apply.

I am also a private school parent who will pay VAT from Jan 2025. And I voted to get the Tories out anyway.

But who advised them? This was a headline Labour policy. It's been in that news for months if not a year or more. The Labour Party never said there would be any delay in implementation. The OP must have accepted the place earlier this year. It's unfortunate but the decision to send a child to a state school should have been made a bit earlier. Private schools need all the money they can get to survive. They simply cannot afford to be nice and waive fees.

And yes, I read the OP, and I know that the amount she will have to pay for Sep-Dec 2024 is EXACTLY the amount she expected to pay, as there is no VAT yet on any of her children’s fees

The extra £9k is for spring and summer 2025 (and will be less as her older one will go to state then)

DC's previous school has a long waiting list, they will fill the place in from September and get double fees. It's not a matter of affordability, but the attitude.

The autumn term fees would t be + VAT .... the VAT applies from 1 1 2025.

There's no increase in cost yet though, so you were expecting to have to pay these fees in September and have budgeted for it. I know no one likes paying for things they don't receive, but there's no increase in cost to what you would have been paying in September anyway. It's that sunk cost fallacy. Just pay the fees and move him now, you'll be no worse off financially than if you keep him at the private school for another term just to get what you've paid for.

The school has to have notice periods, and will be facing difficult times due to lots of parents leaving for the same reason. Lots of posters saying 'they don't care about you, you're just a cash cow' but how much do you care about the future of the school and staff beyond what it can provide for your own children?If you're happy to weasel out of paying them and put their stability at risk, it works both ways.

OP, did the school announce the updated fees or are you just assuming 20% on the top?
To answer your actual question yes im afraid you are contractually obliged to pay, you can ask for the fees to be discounted but they dont have to agree. we lost the terms fee some time ago when giving late notice and that was a sought-after school that had a long waiting list (so no problem filling in the place) yet we still had to pay the fees

OP I think that the school would most likely be able to enforce this, so you will lose the term’s fees.

But on the positive side, you have a state school place at a good school. If you find places for the other dc you can pull them out of the private school too and save even more money.

Does anyone know if there is any scope for legal action to fight the terms and conditions? I would be grateful for any positive contributions. Thank you.

To answer your original question, OP - and one of the reasons (ie not gloating….) why I keep mentioning the contract - no, there is no scope for legal action to fight the terms and conditions.

Your best bet is a discussion with the bursar where you negotiate paying the amount but getting a 50% refund if the place is filled. Bear in mind that you may not be the only parent giving notice/ not starting and the discretion is more likely to be given to someone leaving in 6th form, say, who has paid several years of fees already.

Was the election called after the point at which parents would have had to have given notice to not start in Sept?

(It doesn't change the contract, I'm just curious) I know that it was a labour policy and labour loooked set to win but the election was called earlier than expected wasn't it. People were predicting October election.

The cost of this is nearly £9k a year to her family

9k is a drop in the ocean to a family who could afford to send 4 kids to private school. And now she's saving tens of thousands that they'd budgeted for by not sending her eldest to private secondary. I find it hard to believe she can't cover the cost of her contractual term's notice payment. She'd rather not, which is understandable, but she clearly can afford it.

Pay the fees and don't move your kid until January and get the benefit of the fees you pay. Or pay then fees and live your kid regardless. Or don't pay the fees and be in breach of contract and might be pursued and rightly should be.
Whatever it's YOUR Choice so suck it up.

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contracts don’t have to be fair and equitable to all parties. Parties don’t have to act in good faith under English law. It isn’t an unfair contract term.

I didn’t say anyone advised the OP of anything. Numerous independent bodies advised the government that applying VAT mid-year is a bad idea. The government itself says it’s inadvisable to move children in their GCSE or A level years, and yet that is exactly what will happen for
some kids. I actually think the consultation may result in a delay, but that won’t help anyone right now.

And yes, everyone knew it was in the Labour manifesto, but it’s not until you see the detail of the draft legislation and receive information from the schools on how much they can absorb/offset that you can actually do the sums. If anyone had pulled their child out before July they could have been jumping the gun.

I am also a private school parent who will pay a lot of VAT from January. We have plenty of friends who are giving notice at the moment and can see the difficulty of the decision and the effect on the children. I hope our school are reasonable about it, even if it costs me more in the long run. I’m not nasty to the people leaving and you don’t need to be either.

Yes, the date was announced on 22 May, the term had already started.