Labour’s plans for VAT on Private Schools

[Busydadof2]

The Labour Party has proposed introduction of VAT on private schools.

In the scheme of things the money they will bring in from this is tiny compared with total expenditure on state schools, while it will drive more burden on the state system as some parents leave private schools. I think this is a populist ploy to get traditional Labour voters to vote for what is in any other sense a centrist party.

Have you considered signing this petition to make sure the policy gets scrutinised and the weight of public sentiment against it is known?

Change.org petition: Stop Labour from adding 20% VAT to private school fees and forcing kids to change schools

www.change.org/p/stop-labour-from-adding-20-vat-to-private-school-fees-and-forcing-kids-to-change-schools

Various perspectives from the signatories of this vote come to mind and resonate with our own situation, including this: “I work in a state school with over 30 in a class and oversubscribed. My 2 kids went or go to private schools and we have sacrificed loads to do this. We are NOT wealthy, many of the kids at the school I work at live in bigger houses and have much more disposable income than we do. We chose to send our kids to private school rather than live in a bigger house instead of our semi detached on a main road. We holiday in the UK every year and I work full time. I buy my clothes on the high street or in charity shops. Many parents at the school my kids attend are in exactly the same situation. I agree there are some very wealthy parents there too and the addition of VAT will not even make an impact on them, they will pay it without batting an eyelid. All this will do is push the kids like ours back into an already oversubscribed state system, increase class sizes even more and create a bigger divide as private education will become truly elitist.”

You’ll just get concentrated state schools via house price and grammar entrance tests

You already do, it will just increase

If private schools are subject to VAT how do you differentiate tutoring, dance lessons, music lessons, sports, swimming, holiday clubs etc? Or should all these have VAT added as they are luxuries?

For context, if private schools were totally banned, it would roughly mean every state school would have 29 extra pupils. This split out over the school years, the extra teachers, resources and buildings now freed up from the private sector would mean the state system would be better off.

Private school fees have already gone up massively for various reasons, one of which is schools constantly updating their facilities to attract customers.

This suggests that the market isn’t particularly price sensitive because there isn’t a market for cheaper, more basic private schools. It would be perfectly possible to offer many of the benefits of private education that people always say are important - smaller classes and less bullying for example- at a lower price point but there simply isn’t any demand.

@Sausagesinthesky

If every single privately educated child went into state and no private teachers fancied addressing the shortage and getting a proper job, it would add a couple of kids to a class of thirty. That's if every single child left private school. And the government pays schools per child so it wouldn't happen anyway.
I hope if you were privately educated, you kept the receipt.

What do you mean by private schools getting a tax break though? Education has never been subject to VAT. The policy is to remove that exemption so that education can be taxed for the first time. It seems that education will only be taxed when it is children of school age and educated at a non-state institution. There might well be a moral case for imposing this new tax but that's a different kind of case from saying there shouldn't be a tax break for a particular sector.

As with every thread on this subject, we're led to believe that private schools are kept afloat by single parents working 120 hour weeks doing three jobs on minimum wage while living in council housing. What gibberish. The average fee for private education is double the threshold for free school meals and half the national average income (before tax.) It's a luxury, go ahead and enjoy it and the privilege it brings, but pay the tax the rest of us have to pay on toilet rolls 🙄.

I don’t think most people care either way OP

I have a feeling this will be introduced veeeerrrry slooowly.

There will probably be various schemes to allow schools to dodge it if they share their facilities / teaching staff with local state schools.

There will similarly be schemes for parents with SEN kids to avoid the uplift.

Some schools will have to trim some bells and whistles to reduce fees ( surely the relentless arms race to build more facilities could take a break for a bit.)

Classes will get a bit bigger, teaching assistants will be used a bit more.

Some cheaper local schools will go to the wall.

I’d be surprised if it’s much of a revolution in the end.

The vast majority of people who pay for private school will not be in impacted by this change. Most pay for the fees via their vast assets, not their income.
All this signals to me is that Labour do not intend to do anything to actually tackle wealth inequality. This policy is just to placate and patronise those who really can't comprehend just how rich some people actually are.

How are the state schools going to get all the buildings and resources "freed" by the private sector?

By expropriation? Or charitable donations?

Teachers in private schools are doing as much of a proper job as anyone else.

I’m sure you can manage to make your argument without being illogical and bitchy.

@theduchessofspork

Aww, bless.

Not this again! The country is literally falling apart, youngsters being stabbed to death on the street every week, sick people dying on the floor in the waiting room at A and E, food bank use soaring, homeless soaring- I could go on.

I do wonder when Tory Central office starts threads on this and GC issues as a sheer distraction issue.

Don't judge all by your own vindictiveness. So callous in your disregard for the children whose education will disrupted due to government policy- many will have to withdraw, others will be forced out when the school closes. Coming to a school near you!

She will yes, because she’ll use the money she saves on school fees to buy a house safely within the catchment of a good state school.

I guess that’s a no you can’t.

Ah well.

I reckon my kids' school could accommodate the few kids who might need to leave the private sector. I would be sorry for them, of course, disruption is hard, but I'd be more welcoming of the end of the two tier system.

This happens all the time though, people who rent and are evicted, families fleeing dv, children in foster care moving and a whole host of other reasons. I’m sure the children will cope just fine. Our school would welcome them as we would any other child.

Totally agree - it’s not a ‘luxury’ having a child with additional needs who local state schools refuse to accept or they do accept and neglect them and allow bullying.

The private sector take a huge number of children who fall between the gap of qualifying for an EHCP and being able to cope without extra support.

People just love the Eton tropes while they smugly use their local state school, oblivious to the struggles others have.

Political / voting preference aside, I do believe this is the politics of envy.

I am still waiting someone to explain where the cash for the multimillion pound VAT reclaims and CEA allowance increase is going to come from.

Those majority, already in receipt of their entitled free-state-education, want to apply a tax to try to affect those at private school, as they believe it's unfair for them/their children who do not attend them. That is the politics of envy & jealousy, given the fact the net gain will be minimal.

I would prefer a society which rewards hard graft, not vomits support on those entitled to it.

As I said, 20% increase won't affect me, but I know of a gas engineer, whose Wife is a midwife with 1 child at the same school as my 3.

He was verging on tears at the thought of removing his kid, as he told me the 20% is too much for them to bear.

I guess many on this thread will celebrate the fact that a child like his, will be displaced.

That is the nasty, entitled, jealous society we have become in the UK.

State all the way and I work in a state school but your reference to proper job is deeply deeply offensive for my private school colleagues. Teachers are leaving in droves due to crumbling buildings, unworkable class sizes, and you have the naivety to suggest it will be just a few kids? Nope. Watch. And it will drive those who need the best teaching further away from that.

@theduchessofspork

"I guess that’s a no you can’t.

Ah well."

😂

I'll stop being bitchy when folk wrap their heads around the concept that having a social conscience isn't the consequence of envy. Deal?

Yes it’s depressing to watch

Glee at dc being moved from schools

@Sausagesinthesky

No, the mathematics says it will be a few children and my scenario was based on all privately educated children going to state - how many children do you think are at private. As I've already explained, I'll stop being bitchy about the relative demands of the job when the accusations of envy are retracted. And I've taught in both sectors.

Will be swallowed up in a heartbeat by defence budget or some other mental hs plan. You really thing it’s going to be a hypothecated amount for those struggling in society? Has that ever happened???