VAT on school fees - High Court Challenge.

[EverythingAllatOnceAllTheTime]

Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private school fees in January faces a High Court legal challenge over claims it breaches human rights law.

Lawyers have written to HM Treasury arguing the policy discriminates against special needs children and has threatened court action if it is not dropped.

Showtime…

Seriously... If there was no provision within the state school system perhaps it would fly, but there is, even if it's inadequate. Private education is a luxury, if you can't afford it with VAT then you can't afford it. Cut your cloth to suit. They're is very little sympathy for this issue outwith the 7% or 8% of the population it affects.

No sympathy required, thanks.

Just a successful legal outcome where the plan to impose VAT is scrapped.

I have made donations to change.org which is running the petition, and will happily crowdfund the lawyers.

God, I do hope that Labour succeed!

I want Labour to ban private education and grammar schools.

I will do my bit to ensure they fail.

Seems they have a fight on their hands with respect to the WFA too…

Want doesn't get.

Hopefully the legal challenge is successful and this ridiculous policy is dropped. We need more people paying for private education to free up funding in the state sector. People who think private schools are the chief source of inequality need to check out the state school league tables, especially by region and area. State funded inequality at its finest! At least those sending their kids to private schools have the decency to pay for their privilege

Stamps feet with arms crossed…

Aren't you doing the same thing though? Oh boo hoo I have to pay taxes on a luxury, let's waste the High Court's time.

Is everyone that mounts a legal challenge wasting the High Court's time? How ludicrous!

Good policy will stand up to legal scrutiny. The woman mounting the challenge is a single mother with a SEN child. She is hardly someone that is looking for 'luxury'. Just an adequate education for her child that the state is unable and unwilling to provide.

I am not going to take the bait.

I do hope you enjoy seeing the challenge though, and Labour being hoisted by ECHR legislation - a court they so ardently champion. Oh the irony.

Every vicious/envious policy these idiots try to bring in should be challenged. I am keen to see them hamstrung for their entire (hopefully one) term.

If you want to go to private school pay the VAT, if you can't afford it then so be it. Extra money raised should be bringing state education up to scratch so no child with a disability will need to be privately educated anyway.

Serious question -Why such a scramble of EHCPs if a child is diagnosed with specific leaving needs that warrant a private education. Wouldn't the child already have one in place?

What do you think happens if the parent decides that they can't afford to pay the VAT? The state is landed with an £8k per year bill to educate them. You need three children in private school paying VAT on average private school fees to cover the cost of one non-SEN child choosing state over private. This is for the policy to remain cost neutral. Add in the additional cost of SEN children bouncing back into the system and suddenly it's easy to see why this policy could easily end up costing the government money.

The state system isn't fit for purpose for many kids with SEN and it isn't the case that parents are choosing between an adequate state offering or private. Pretending the very limited money (if any) that this policy will raise will plug these holes in state provision is just so ridiculously naive

ECHPs are notoriously difficult to get. If you are going to pay to go private then why would you fight to get an ECHP? There hasn't always an obvious benefit for kids to have a ECHP in private schools until now hence the rush!

@glitches78 no. DS had his autism diagnosis aged 12 when he was already in private. He doesn't need an EHCP in private school, the SEN provision is already in place there for him without it.

My youngest child goes to a state secondary school and has never been to private school. I live close to an outstanding, very popular, oversubscribed state primary school (which I didn’t like - I sent mine to another local school) so I guess my house price is likely to rise if the private schools close by are impacted.

As a parent who looked around state secondary’s in the last 12 months for the first time in almost 10 years I was shocked at much they have gone downhill in the last 10 years (I also have a much older child who started secondary almost 15 years ago).

10/15 years ago the difference between the number one and two school in the county (on results) and the bottom couple was always stark but now the difference between the top secondary school and number 4/5 in the county is quite shocking. And that change has happened in the last 15 years. I can’t believe my boring average town is unusual and there are no grammar schools in my area.

I looked around so many last year. Some schools appear to be run boot camp style - blazers and silence - great results but poor mental health in students and the kids look so miserable. The teachers hauled nervous kids out of class to speak to parents on open day. One nervous 11 year old was on the verge of tears as the head barked ‘tell the parents what your first month has been like’. It was horrid to watch. Out of school club provision terrible too. Building shabby. Limited sport. After hearing last week how some lovely kids (DCs friends) have found their first week I am very glad we didn't apply here.

Other ‘good’ schools with kids swearing and screaming in corridors - telling parents and year 6s on open day (in jest) ‘don’t come here it’s awful’ . I knew they were being funny but my 10 year old found it unsettling.

Knives in schools. The head assured me the kids are being expelled. I believe expulsion costs the school money. If this is true then is it cheaper to turn a blind eye and suspend rather than expel? I have no idea but it has crossed my mind.

County lines recruiting outside a school locally. This is well known and was confirmed by an acquaintance who teaches there.

39/40 kids in many top set groups. Not great if you have a child in top set.
Mixed English sets (helps the lower achievers apparently and the smart kids will do well anyway). Not setting in other subjects.

It feels like a race to the bottom. If they all get an old style c and come out intact then fair enough. Ignore mental health. Ignore friendships and sport (good for mental health and fitness and team building).

How will putting more kids into state schools help?

All the schools near me except one (county lines school) were oversubscribed this year 7.

Two are having an extra 30 kids squeezed in with no extra classrooms being built. I presume they are getting portacabins?

I know that the supply agencies are struggling to send specialist teachers so kids are being taught by supply or non specialist teachers. There aren’t enough teachers already so where are the 6500 coming from? Private schools?

I’m not sure how the VAT increase will help the overcrowding and teaching situation.

I think sharp elbowed private school parents will fight for their kids to attend faith and well performing schools using catchment and aptitude tests. They will drop hours and select the village secondary’s where parents have to drive kids to and from school or pay for £1000 a year bus passes - in effect they are choosing schools using their resources. Out of school clubs in sport, music, drama and computing from age 5 to pass aptitudes. They will pay for tutors and out of school activities to make sure Jimmy gets 9s at GCSE.

I wonder if there will be an increase in private sixth form provision. State education, pay for tutors then private sixth form for A-Levels. Or will home schooling increase?

I’d prefer to home school over the local school struggling with county lines. If you have two kids in private school at 19000 a year plus VAT . £45600 net income needed. Single women may end up using state schools but married women (I’d say men but it is likely to be women) earning up to 60/70k a year could stop work, home ed and the family will be no worse off financially (unless they divorce of course).

I am not sure this decision has been fully thought through. It sounds great, it’s a crowd pleaser, but I’m not convinced it’s positive.

Or maybe after private schools we should get rid of grammar schools and faith schools and schools with aptitudes and catchments? Get rid of all sets and streaming? And tutors?

But I doubt that will happen as the politicians won’t want that for their kids/grandkids and they can afford the tutors and houses in catchment and to have the wife stop her 60k a year job to home ed. They certainly won’t be sending their kids to the county lines school near me.

Can you link to the source please, OP? I've not seen anything in the news about a legal challenge.

I found it easily by Googling.

It's reported in the Telegraph and Mail so far that I can see: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13824931/amp/Single-mother-autistic-child-launches-High-Court-challenge-Labours-private-schools-VAT-raid-claiming-violates-daughters-right-education.html

There is no human right to private education.

If this fails there will be others. VAT on private boarding fees but not on (paid for by parents) boarding at state schools is clearly discriminatory. VAT has to be non-discriminatory - a paid for service of the same type should be treated the same for VAT purposes regardless of the provider.

I paid VAT on tutor for my son to pass his GCSE. By your argument, VAT should be paid on private school fees. You are paying for the education element. The boarding element isn't education.

I thought SEN private schools were excluded from Labour's VAT policy.

Good. I hope they are successful.

This is great news. Even if it just delays the inevitable ds might have nearly finished his schooling by the time it is implemented.
I have also donated to the link.

There is a huge grey area when it comes to SEN. Labour have said that anyone with an ECHP won't have to pay VAT but the vast majority of SEN kids in private schools don't have this certificate. It's not just about SEN private schools.

The woman who is taking legal action was denied an ECHP from her Local Authority for her child. LAs are understandably getting more and more reluctant to issue these certificates as they are so short of funds and it can be so expensive to fund the requirements of these certificates. She was then stuck with inadequate state provision for her child so (with her mother's assistance) paid to go private where her child's needs could be met without the certificate. Whatever way you look at it, this saved the state money. She now can't afford the fees with the VAT that's been added and thus is challenging the policy in court. I foresee lots more parents challenging local authorities decisions on these ECHPs to either avoid the VAT or force them to pay for the provision out of state funding. This could get very very expensive for the government indeed!

Families who pay for their SEN children to be privately educated are currently relieving the state of a huge financial burden. Many state schools are just not able to provide the kind of support these children need.
Obviously it would be ideal if state schools were given the funds to put the appropriate provision in place, but the VAT policy is not going to raise the necessary funds and in any case it's going to take years to recruit and train more teachers. This is in addition to the huge problems we currently have with retaining teachers in the state sector.
I imagine that up to now, LAs have been very pleased to be able to abdicate responsibility for providing for SEN students
I think government are going to regret this decision and I hope that the legal challenge is successful

It's (currently) not correct that holding an EHCP in a private school would exempt you from fees. It would require that the fees are being paid by the local authority. That's much rarer.

I find it fair that the policy be tested legally.

I have had to go to court twice (SENDIST) to get my LA to comply with the law and assess my child for EHCP and then again to get it issued (many have to do it three times to get a suitable school named but we were lucky). It must have taken me hundreds of hours of work. I am fortunate to have had the knowledge and education to get it done.

By the way, the LAs lose around 95% of the SENDIST cases and sometimes employ barristers to fight off the parents.

Meanwhile (this took two years; could easily have been longer) your child may not be getting educated at all.

There are certainly human rights aspects here.