Fees refund scheme- worth it?

[ChiefRoady]

Any opinions on whether fee refund schemes are worth the money?

DS usually gets 100% attendance awards so I’m thinking probably not for us but hadn’t given it a lot of thought (only just had our offer so not much time to consider !)

I've never bothered
On our offered scheme they need to have a full week off to claim

Thank you! I didn’t know where to find the terms. Suppose I could opt in later

They can be useful if a child has long enough off, and probably are very helpful if something significant happens that leads to a few weeks off. We opted in at DD's first school and got a small refund when she was off with chickenpox; I don't think we used it again. I think we opted out when she moved schools.

So yes, for secondary and a child with a history of good health, it's a true insurance that you're unlikely to use at all unless very unlucky.

Most kids have just the odd day or two off in a stretch….so the policy doesn’t pay out.

If they get a long illness, that’s when you benefit from it. The vast vast majority of kids never have this though.

It’s a funny kind of policy. Other insurances which cover loss of earnings or unepxted expenses, are usually covering you for a loss of income or unelected cost which means you’re in a vulnerable financial position. With school fees, if your kid was at school you’d have paid. If they are not at school, it’s not that you incur an additional unexpected expense. Yes, your kid isn’t getting their schooling you’ve paid for…but you won’t then incur fees for an extra year of schooling. On that basis, I’ve never thought it was worth it. The fees are money gone as far as I’m concerned, wehrtehr my child is there or not.

If a child had a terrible long term illness, you could withdraw them. The school might be flexible abiut giving a terms notice in the circumstances. But with a dreadful very very long illness, you probably wouldn’t pay the fees for years and years without attending. It’s so unusual for this to happen. An individual school is likely to be quite sympathetic and flexible about a genuine ongoing problem. For example, they might allow a parent to withdraw their child and start the year again the following year if they were well enough, or re-enter into the year they would have been without the absence when we’ll enough, without expecting fees for many terms of absence. It would all depend on the situation, but because it’s so rare and schools want to be decent to people with long term illnesses, flexibility is possible.

We've claimed for a week off for chicken pox, otherwise not needed. Our policy has a reassuring extra in that fees are paid for two years following the death of a parent.

Can someone share the name of the insurance companies they use?

Please

It was invaluable when one of the dcs missed weeks/months of school at a time over the course of their secondary school years. I had meant to not renew it after prep school but so glad that I was disorganised!

It’s the 2 years fees covered in case of accidental death of a fee payer that made us sign up.

@EweCee oh that IS interesting thanks for sharing . I think I need to find out more about the cover. Think I’ll wait until the admissions craziness dies down.

@EmotiveBubblez these policies tend to be ones arranged by the school themselves, with a premium you can choose to pay alongside the school fees. (Probably far more realistic than if you tried to set up a policy yourself, the school arranging it means better shared risk for the insurers)