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…

I do find it baffling that some people claim to care about children with SEN, so much so that they'll donate to the crowdfunder and write letters, and campaign, but when it comes to trying to convince state school parents that this is a bad policy, a lot of them are using the notion of ex private school children with SEN joining our children's classes as a scare tactic. Out and out saying that children with SEN in the class will only detract from other children's education.

You can't have it both ways. It's not about children with SEN at all. You just don't want to pay the VAT and you're using children with SEN as a convenient, morally acceptable excuse.

If it was really all about the children, you'd be campaigning about how discriminatory it is that not all children with SEN are able to access private school.

Thanks for taking the time for this explanation. I hadn't appreciated this before and it is certainly an eye opener.

So you are saying that you don’t want to pay more tax and expect someone else to pay?!

The “luxury” goods argument is ridiculous. Education is never a luxury and whether VAT is imposed on something has nothing to do whether it is a luxury or not. And education is not “goods” anyway.

You should be aware private education isn’t labelled a ‘luxury good’. It is exempt from VAT because all education is (currently) exempt from VAT.

Greece attempted to add VAT on private education, a few years ago. Didn’t end well.

Reported, naturally.

@Bumpitybumper

The SEND needs assessment system in this country is drawn out over years because affordability is built into the design. The EHCP process is based on an ‘everything else has failed’ approach. So school / nursery setting have to identify the potential need and put in a low cost ‘intervention’ usually delivered by existing staff and within the settings core budget and then monitor to see if it makes any impact. When it fails, they have to do it again and again gradually “upping” the amount or intensity of intervention and monitor until they can ‘prove’ it fails. It’s called plan, so, review. And although it makes logical sense and for lots of children their needs will be met at this lower level, unfortunately for children who have high needs all
this does it delay and delay the (more expensive) support they need for about 2 years. Then the setting / school can apply for an EHCP which has a 20 week maximum period to be completed but almost every local authority is WAY OVER these limits at the moment and has been since COVID. And it requires a report from an educational psychologist who are in desperate short supply. So it’s not unusual for the actual assessment to take a year by the time an EP has been allocated. Even when all of this has been achieved, LA have spent their SEN budget 10 times over as there is an exponential rise in children presenting with SEND so they then tend to write plans with the absolute bare minimum they can get away with. So add that all up and you have a probable 2-3 wait (longer if you need the ‘H’ element - health - the delays in the nhs are not a secret) to get a bare minimum plan that you’ve then got to fight with state school to enact because the money that goes with the plan never actually covers the cost and the schools have no extra money. And that’s if they can recruit the staff.
Meanwhile the child is becoming more and more distressed and harmed by the inadequate provision and often suspended/ excluded if not meeting their needs are expressed through ‘challenging behaviours’

This is the reality of SEND EHCP assessment in this country

Try using your initiative and reading the article.

Just a thought.

I don’t think it is bad to say that it is a vile attitude to say you will pay whatever it takes to ensure the rights of the privileged are protected. It is what I believe looking at the situation as a whole.

Swimming lessons are a life skill, not a luxury, and should be included in the curriculum and/or subsidised.
Private Tuition is a luxury, and I have no issue with VAT being applied.
University education is also a luxury, again I have no issue with VAT being applied to the course fees.
(There needs to be more other ways of obtaining qualifications and working toward a career).
Private Education is a luxury, and I have no problem with VAT being added to the fees.
Luxuries tend to be things which are out of the price range of many average people.

I guess if the action fails here it will go to the court of human rights, and since no other European countries tax education it will likely succeed there.

You have the numbers at hand I assume.

Tell me, how much is the VAT expected to raise?

Lets hope your grasp of numbers is better than Rayners.

Nope. The people who want even more of someone else's money to pay for something they use but aren't willing to pay fairly for themselves are the entitled ones.

State education should be paid for out of general taxation.

Just wondering if those who want to ban private schools also want to ban private health care

See what you did there?

Twisted things.

Sorry, but that will not work.

My point stands.

Nobody is twisting anything except the entitled who suddenly find themselves potentially less entitled.

There is a massive difference between taxing something and banning it.

I imagine the vast majority of people in the position of the lady bringing the legal action would have much rather that their DC needs could be met in a state school.

She must feel awful about her parents (retired police officer; retired prison officer) spending their retirement savings this way.

Like it or not, the UK state has been denying the right of a lot of children to a suitable education for a long time, pushing it under the carpet to the private sector, and the only reason this is not more generally known is that not many people take an interest if it doesn't affect them directly.

I mean I had no real idea until I had to get an EHCP and my teaching colleagues (who teach kids with EHCP) had no idea how bad things had got for parents in the last 10 years either. They were shocked.

I don't want to ban anything private, it should however be taxed accordingly (as a luxury).

And privately owned books. That's what libraries are for.

(books are also exempt from VAT, for the same reason as education)

What 'right' is being breached?

Well, following your logic, the ‘entitled’ will use their superior resources to fight every BS action this government tries to introduce, starting with this issue.

I, for one, am really looking forward to the scrap, and I consider myself ‘reasonable’ rather than entitled.

How exactly did I twist things? What part isn’t true?

Why not just say everyone pays for their children's education unless they are in receipt of benefits. Perhaps a sliding scale on income, let everyone pay their fair share. That would actually solve the chronic shortage of funds for education, rather than the piddling amount raised by VAT on school fees.

Private education is a luxury service.
I also have no issue with VAT on non-educational books - again a luxury which nobody needs. We owned very few books as children/teens but I read a lot more than average, due to library use.