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.

Given you're not the only person in the country, somebody else will take up the hours you're cutting, and pay tax on the wages they gain from doing so.

The tutors you hire will also pay tax on their wages, and have more disposable income to support the general economy. The sports clubs you pay will pay tax on earnings.

You cutting your hours and moving tax bands is not a fiscal disaster for the government.

We are going to go state for sixth form, other parents at the school at talked are either planning moving for sixth form or already paid fees till end of sixth form so potentially no VAT for them

But you also have to deduct the cost of the state school place that PPs will now be taking up.

Oxbridge admissions contextualise GCSE results for the schools they were sat at (and that's high achieving v low achieving, not private v state anyway). They don't "positively discriminate" state A level applicants, so the private to state sixth form switchers aren't going to get the benefit they think they are there. Other Oxbridge "flags" are about home address, in care etc, not schools.

Ok @tortoise18 🙃

Ok. Then also add the receipts from the VAT from the vast majority of private school pupils who are staying put.

Either way, more pupils in state schools means more funding for state schools. Good!

Didn't notice your user name. From previous experience, I don't expect you to react well to facts, but carry on, you're not going to change. What ten things have Labour done to infuriate you today?

If more than 10% leave indy then there will be £0 income and it becomes a net cost to the taxpayer. We are very close to that 0% anyway.
More funding for state schools doesn't magically come out of thin air, it is paid for by taxpayer.
That's the issue, there is a seeming black hole yet Labour are putting more strain on taxpayer with this policy. They are happy to use private healthcare to relieve pressure on NHS yet state education is in crisis and Labour's response is to put more pressure on the system (especially SEN) + tax payer by targeting indy sector with a ridiculous policy whose net result could be to cost taxpayer.

That’s Oxbridge. For other unis unless it’s down to the knuckle for a particular offer - broadly state intake boost their state stats and many don’t seem to look further than current school.

The kids I’ve seen who’ve moved to a state 6th form over the last 10 years have received more uni offers, sometimes many more, than friends they’ve left behind in private school with higher predictions.

I'm working harder and longer hours to afford to continue to send my SEND child to a small independent school where 60% of the pupils are SEND. I do know that some of the children in this school will need to (are) leave(ing) as they are there by necessity rather than choice (the state system of schools having failed them, and their parents not having planned to send them to the independent sector).

I see SEND children starting to leave the school and their places being taken up by children of more expensive independent schools without SEND.

It is a very sad thing to disrupt children's education in this way part way through the academic year. Many parents will not have withdrawn their children yet as they will not have been able to give a full terms notice. As many posters have noted, the children at Eton will not be impacted, its the small Indy schools helping SEND children.

In your opinion.
Lots of people disagree with you and that's ok. You are entitled to your opinion and others are entitled to theirs.

Not just my opinion! Lots of people have just accepted what Labour have told them. I mean even Luke Sabatier who wrote the IFS paper now says that he believes 90K will leave indy schools. The Director of IFS is on record saying this will bring in very little money.
More people, who actually know what they are on about, say it will harm more than it benefits.

Indy schools fill a massive hole in SEN provision in the UK

I was considering sending my oldest to private school (she has SEN) but the increase means I can't afford it and so I will send her to state secondary instead. Ultimately I am concerned that she would benefit from smaller class sizes but we will just have to make so.

Not at all, I have one child left at school (state) now and we don’t have any private schools locally, so I doubt any increase in our school roll

Which they wouldn’t have to if Labour hadn’t closed many state special schools to absorb them into the mainstream under Ruth Kelly, who then sent her SEN son private. The promised provision of increased numbers of TAs to support this scheme never materialised thus the upshot was simply more pressure on state school schools/teachers.

More will close under their 'inclusion' policy

As someone who lives in an entirely selective county, it's way more likely to affect the Y6 children moving to Y7, with increased competition for grammar places, I would expect.

I agree. I have family living in a very affluent part of Birmingham. They could have afforded private school but went the route of tutoring and then grammar schools. Which is something more people will do now rather than cut their holiday expenses.

And a 3rd closure has just been announced meaning 160 kids + all teaching + support staff being made redundant by end of academic year

Seems odd to crank out tax policies that don’t generate net revenue but are perceived as hostile by a demographic who pay a disproportionate share of tax.

It’s almost like we want to be poorer over all.

This alone won’t sink us, but it is part of a mosaic of choices that are not optimistic and pro-growth.

The draft legislation puts in place specific rules to ensure VAT is chargeable on prepaid fees. Any pre-payment of fees that takes place after 29 July 2024 will be ineffective.

And that's why schools were offering the full lifetime of fees up front prior to that end of July deadline. The really wealthy who could afford it took advantage so will never pay VAT. Schools such as Eton et al will have had a massive windfall due to this and they can now stash the cash and invest it. Again, it's the middle earners who send their kids to local small indy schools who were penalised for not being able to afford to do that.
This policy doesn't impact wealthy parents or schools, it impacts middle earners + small schools hence why 3 closures have been announced this week.
Labour are just making indy schools MORE elitist.

As many posters have noted, the children at Eton will not be impacted, it's the small Indy schools helping SEND children.

Don't be so disingenuous. In between 'Eton' and 'small Indy schools helping SEN children' is the where the reality of the vast majority of private schools is. Which in my area is for clientele who live on estates out in the country and have 3 holidays a year. Who drive brand new range rovers and often own at least one pony. At the 'lower' end of this group are doctors and lawyers paying for their children to go.

The people on threads like these, banging on about the 'poor children with SEN in private schools' would probably come out in a cold sweat if their own little darlings had to mix with 'SEN kids'. Their child's school probably won't take them.

My daughter actually does attend one of those (rare) private schools which work for children with SEN. So I know full well that the vast majority of average private schools have absolutely no intention of taking children with autism, or SEN no matter how academic that child is. A lot of these institutions are still incredibly ableist and old fashioned and the parents who have children there do not want their kids mixing with 'SEN kids.'

I see how manipulative you people are, who are doing this. Stop using children like mine who you likely know nothing about to further your own agenda of political point scoring.

Actually on average there are 20% SEN in each indy school across the country. Some are selective so may have the view you expressed above but many are non-selective.
No-one at DDs NE school "live on estates out in the country"
The point is that it is an extremely diverse sector, something Labour failed to understand

Rubbish. There is nothing diverse about it. Generally. So stop peddling this nonsense.

i know the realities of how these schools operate and the majority of them are not safe havens for children with SEN. In fact, they are the opposite. In fact, most MS private schools are no better for an autistic child than a state school.

A lot of autistic kids are more than academically able enough to pass entrance exams to selective private schools. The problem is that the schools don’t want to adapt to the adjustments they need. And they have paying customers wringing their hands if they accept children who are a bit different.

If you don’t have a child with SEN then you shouldn’t repeatedly be using other people’s children with SEN to manipulate your own agenda which is as I see it, has nothing whatsoever to do with children who have SEN.