How's the Private School VAT increase impacting you?

[mumsthewordi]

To private fee paying ...are kids/s still in private ? Are you comfortably still able to afford and happy paying it ?

To state, how do you feel? Have you been impacted by more kids in class or would you expect that to play out this year? Or perhaps you weren't supportive ?
Do you think state schools will improve ?

Full disclosure
A struggling fee paying parent of one kid only other is at state and my oh is an amazing secondary school teacher - we are a divided household indeed at time, but we've made choices best for us.

But uni fees are paid initially by a student loan and then spread out over 25 years+. You aren't being asked to fork out 4K per year up in cash

Two in private school and it has affected us financially but also as a wake up call to leave the U.K. We can’t stand the mentality here anymore. The only country to inflict this on parents who want a choice between private and state for an ideology. We do not have long to go but this would have added a lot more strain on our finances if we were starting schools or even secondary school as also interest rate and bills are through the roof. We do not think is worth it working here as we can’t keep any money after taxes and bills. People seem to be entitled to your hard work earnings and it may be that you end up the same or much worse that the people you are paying taxes for. We also have to have private health insurance as both state schools and NHS are dire where we live. Worst of both worlds paying up and not getting much back. Also, seeing how the mayor of London destroyed the city and was knighted is just a glimpse of the state of this country.

I was commenting on the effects in my area, which is what the OP was asking about. You queried my statement that fees at my local private schools were very high so I went to check, and they are indeed very high. As I stated, it's a wealthy rural area and the fees reflect this. The good news is it doesn't seem to have caused any knock-on effect in the state schools.

If you are a high earner you pay the maintenance part and they get the loan for fees, (unless they are estranged or have other mitigating factors), so in effect £10k a year for 3 to 4 years. It’s based on household income. Apologies I should have said “costs” not “fees” in my original post.

There has been a 25% drop in the birth rate. There are far far fewer 5 year olds starting school. This year so i would absolutely expect intakes at the bottom to have dropped.
The fall also means that for some people an excellent state primary might now be accessible to them (eg one out of catchment they wouldnt have got into 5 or 6 years ago) whivh may mean they don't see a need for prep.

Its not likely any of the state schools offered would be a faith secondary either so why would they not opt to stay private but a different school?

But the % leaving aren't just prep, they are secondary + 6th form

’I get it, you don't care but at the end of the day the people who suffer most through schools closing are kids and it says a lot that some on here are gleeful about that happening.’

Quite. Tells us a lot about human nature doesn’t it. Labour envy spite all over it, even where thousands of children’s are involved.

Negatively affecting our finances. We will survive but have less spare cash for “nice to haves”. Of course the bitter and envious will think that’s a good thing. Thankfully only three more years to go, that is presuming the school survives.

If it doesn’t survive I will be giving up work to home ed, so that will be a tax loss to U.K. plc as I am a net contributor of tax.

Mine go to a very good oversubcribed state school. There is no room for private kids to move across, even state school kids moving area carnt get in and have to go to a much further away school. That's the price you pay by going private, don't just assume a nice state place will open up if you need it

But Labour promised that each kid who left indy as a result of VAT would have a place at a good state school. You don't mean that they lied?

My ds is in the lower 6th at an independent. I'm a single parent and he's on a 50% academic scholarship which is still a massive stretch for me.

I was made redundant in August and paid a 4 figure lump sum to go away. Thankfully I found another comparable job within a few weeks, so I managed to bank enough of my lump sum to pay the VAT.

So I'll manage to get him through, but my stress was off the scale for a while.😥

People aren't gleeful, they are just neutral /resigned to it. What exactly do you want us all to do about it?

You are basically expecting everyone to be up in arms, vocally campaigning for the VAT to be dropped and are disgusted that people arent. May I ask how much vocal campaigning private school parents have done about state school standards over the last 15 years? None!! Not because they are 'gleeful' but because they DON'T CARE because it doesn't impact them. Human nature.
We don't care about the private school vat situation because it doesn't impact us and we don't expect it to impact us despite posters like @twistyizzy who are adamant that yes state schools will all suddenly be overwhelmed with private school kids.

Its really simple.... I don't agree. I don't think thats what will happen, so I'm not worried.

I've written about the amazing impact a smallish school has had on our DD who has Autism and other SENs.

DD is in first year of GCSES so 18 more months to go then she'll go to state.

We'll suck it up but it's pushing us to the edge, if it didn't make such a massive difference to her we'd have switched her back to state. The cost have gone up by £600 a month since we started on top of every other bill that has increased!

Speaking to other parents a lot are doing the same and moving them after or some before GCSES, it will be September that the impact is noticed.

The problem is the whole system is broken we shouldn't have felt that the only choice we had was to go private in order for our child to thrive, I'm just grateful we had that choice and the money to do so.

I think we need to radically rethink education, perhaps have some smaller schools as well as these big academies it's very sort sighted to not ensure that the next generation are well educated as they will be the next set of tax payers so we want as many as possible contributing to the economy.

One less short break a year for us.

I would consider state if Labour are voted out.

The reason it is an own goal is because whenever these sorts of tax hikes are proposed, the pitchfork mob come out screaming with glee that the rich are going to get it but in reality there are consequences that mean the rise is then absorbed by other spend. This is not a good policy for raising money for schools - most projections indicated that. We can't VAT and tax ourselves to become Finland, an entirely different economic model and size of population. I'm not sure what the answer is, and as a private fee school paying parent I would rather send my kids to an excellent state school with equivalent facilities (been in that circus with DD early years, no thanks) and spend the c£70k we're spending now on 3 x 18k mums net recommended holidays, but mine and your prejudices aside, as a policy this will make f'all difference and may even worsen the crisis in state schools

Pretty sure they were promised just as good a state school place as all the other state school kids get offered

How very short terms and smug of you. That's the kids moving mid-year, start of e.g. senior school. But maybe you have a younger child who will now compete against 10% more joiners. That's what people are facing

It will be like anyone one else who is moving schools mid year. You will get a place in a school that has availability. That could be close by or in another area and it won't be the best or good school as these are oversubcribed.

Except most of us use state schools too! Majority of indy parents mix and match state + indy depending on local provision. So to say none of us care about state is just wrong!
Maybe just suspend your prejudices and sweeping assumptions about who we are and what we fight for. I personally fight for my child,whether they are in Indy or state.

Due to Brexit, falling birth rates and the high cost of living leading to less demand, a very good local primary has closed, another is undergoing consultation on closure and a third one is reducing its PAN. Lots of space in good local schools here! I’ve seen no evidence of any children being moved from the ( very expensive ) private schools to the good local state schools.

Bullshit. Plenty of private school parents don't give a shiny shit about their local crap secondary because they aren't using it. Have you posted on mumsnet threads encouraging private school parents to start being more vocal to encourage change in the local state sector?
Shall I start a thread to give you a platform to encourage?

Ours is still a toddler. I'm unsure of whether we will make up the extra money or try to buy in a better catchment area.

As PPs have said, many state schools are under subscribed, especially those in rural and affluent areas due to the falling birth rate. As are the ones in deprived areas interestingly enough, and these schools do often tend to be the better performing ones as they tend to get more investment, innovation and dynamic staff. Is another option to just send your kids to a cheaper private school if privateness is so important? I don't know anyone personally who uses the private school system currently, so can't comment on what the impact has been at this level. I know lots of people in high-flying careers who were state educated, likewise those who were privately educated who are now in very mediocre careers. Without looking closely at the data I can't say for certain but I'd imagine that overall privately educated people generally go on to have more prosperous careers, but I'm very much of the belief that if you're bright enough, work hard enough and have supportive parents, then you'll do just fine in any state school.

Our children’s school is passing on 11% to parents and absorbing the rest. We can afford the hike. We could comfortably afford the fees to begin with so it’s not an issue for us.