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.

The fact that refinancing your mortgage is going to drag for longer now and that English businesses are poorer are all factors likely to impact on private school parents and their ability to pay school fees with VAT even more now.

You don't think a 20% increase has any impact?

So how would you deal with a 20% increase in your mortgage payments? People kick off with a 2% rise on their mortgages, I doubt many could cope with 20%. Yet you are blindly asserting that "20% school fees increase is probably not the worst thing that could happen to a working family's income in the real life". Why do you think there are 10 000 fewer kids in Indy schools on Sept 24 than Sept 23 and why schools are closing? Precisely because they can't afford a 20% rise!

It isn't just VAT, it is VAT on top of the general rising cost of living that indy parents face just like everyone else

The link I posted tells you what is classified as a state benefit. I'm not engaging further on this.

So what? What business is it of yours whether the parents can afford to be mugged by the government?!?

We're back to 'we'll mug them because we can'

fuckers

Instead of 'Yes, let's recognise that they're subsidising the government by paying for something themselves which the government would be paying otherwise. And NOT tax them even more on the money they're already subbing the government'

Because otherwise, some will stop paying it. And then the government will have to.

Or even, not 'because some will stop paying it, meaning that the policy will cause a loss'.

How about just because adding an extra tax on money people are subbing the government is unethical and wrong.

I think across multiple threads we have established very clearly now that it is not tax efficient to purchase private education for the parents purchasing it. It is however very efficient for the state to have those parents doing just that. Yet the state got greedy and now we have the mess. Because the Labour Party cannot do basic maths.

It's actually not funny at all. If you read threads like these, there is so much false information it's crazy. Why let facts get in the way of propaganda.

That's why living relatively "hand to mouth" and having friend on a 500K (USA) salary with 1 mln mortgage who had to move their DC from private to state sector after redundancy, we decided to not subject our family to 2 huge liabilities at the same time.
Hopefully most of that 280K are good at financial planning as well.

Well I know you’re correct, based on my experience. The prep school 80% in our class of 22 were working parents (both parents), and about the same at secondary school (though not as confident in the 80% as I don’t know as many people personally). Engineers, doctors, lawyers, journalist, nurses, teachers, CEO’s of own companies, marketing people etc. I’d also be confident in saying a significant majority went to state schools themselves.

But anyway it’s like talking to a brick wall for some, so what can one do. Leave them to it. Or ‘Let them’.. it’s not going to change any views.

“Hopefully most of that 280K are good at financial planning as well.”

Nobody can financially plan in a vacuum. School fees have gone up astrononomically in the last few years alone, cost of living has gone up, private sector salaries have not, debt has gone up substantially etc - it is pretty clear all round that even if those parents do not want to move their kids, many will simply have to and the State will have to pay out. So into an existing fiscal nightmare for the state, it is really not a vanity project they can any longer afford to pacify some staunch moralists in their party.

Because it looks like the amount if threads on VAT on MN is disproportional to the actual impact on DC in PS. 10k decrease (out of what, 560K in PS? It's 1.7 %) might be due to declining birth rate alone.

It's a 10K decrease to start with, not an end figure. The biggest impact will be seen Sept 25

How do you jump to the conclusion that half won’t feel the difference? A GP providing support has nothing to do with the affordability of VAT?

Fine. I've already shown that using either a pedantic dictionary definition or being pragmatic about the actual impact, it is a benefit provided to an individual by the government.

I know it's uncomfortable to be forced to recognise that the policy is designed to penalise people simply for not taking up a benefit which would otherwise be paid for by the tax payer.

Doesn't make any financial sense, does it?

OK, so you stand by the 'we'll mug them because we can. Even if no one benefits' mentality?

At least you're owning it.

Paying tax on a luxury product is not being mugged. There is a perfectly good free alternative if you don't want to pay the tax.

Paying tax on money we're subbing the government is being mugged.

The fact that I could change my behaviour to avoid it is irrelevant.

If I never leave my home, no one can physically mug me.

Doesn't absolve a mugger of guilt.

VAT isn't a luxury tax
Strange how UK is only country in Europe (and one of only handful in the world) who believe that certain forms of education are 'luxury'. Most other countries believe that everyone benefits from a well educated population, no matter where or how that education is delivered.
Maybe Labour are right and everyone else in Europe + the world are wrong. Or maybe......

Not really, it's the whole point.

By subbing the government, do you mean paying tax and not using a state school? Because I don't think that is subbing the government, it's just how tax works. The same way I'm not subbing the government because I've never used an ambulance or called the fire brigade.

But you aren't doing that and then being told to pay an extra 20% tax

Nor are you, you're choosing to pay an extra 20% tax. It's optional.

Based on a decision to attack 1 sector of education. See my previous point

See my previous point, it's not an attack.

Yes it is. A very blatant attack. BP etc have always made it clear they want to end indy schools, this is an attempt to do so through the back door. It is very obviously an attack. Look up some of their historical tweets + speeches