IFA Magazine quotes Sarah Jane Boon on Labour’s pledge to add VAT to private school fees within their first year in government

Now that Labour is in power, a VAT raid on private school fees could be a key policy of its government. 

Sarah Jane Boon, Partner in the Family team comments for IFA Magazine on the proposals:

Labour’s pledge to add VAT to private school fees within their first year in government could make private schooling unaffordable for some families and bring about concerns about how easily (and when) a good state alternative could be found.

Parents of children at independent schools will be used to regularly assessing the affordability of school fees against their finances – school fees have increased ahead of inflation for the past 25 years – but families could now be hit with significantly increased fees as soon as the next academic year.

This possibility may be especially worrying for separated or divorced parents, who are committed to a court-imposed obligation to discharge school fees until their children reach the end of their secondary education. There may now be increasing numbers of parents who seek to vary their court obligations on the grounds of affordability.

Separated couples often struggle with funding two households on divorce. The decision as to where children are educated falls to both parents to be agreed under their parental responsibility, so disagreements over such issues can lead to litigation – with the court making the ultimate decision.

Read the full piece in IFA Magazine here.