Sometimes, in the rush to creative a particular narrative, journalists produce articles that are predicated on a situation that is impossible, which simply serves, at least to anyone with reasonably developed critical thinking skills, to completely undermine the point they are trying to make.
How could anyone earning that, and that alone, ever afford private education? Even it is was £2k pa?
I remember the 'assisted places scheme' and how many of the 'poor parents' had Jaguars and the like. If you're not on PAYE, a clever accountant can 'adjust' your notional income to an astonishing degree.
It's one of many things that needs reforming in this country. But no party can be arsed. Certainly not 'Reform'.
So I'm a tad cynical about 'poor' parents, unless I get to see the full SP.
Yes certainly she isn’t paying for it out of income. I suspect she is either on full bursary or she has other money / a grandparent is paying for it and the “extras” she is struggling to meet however article is behind a paywall. Either that or she is fiddling her taxes but I’d be surprised if that’s in the article!!
She's earning £12.5k. She's also on benefits, which helps pay her rent of £720 a month.
The fees are apparently £5600, reduced due to a bursary to £3360. This is next to a graph in the article, which says average day schools, prior to the VAT increase, are now £20k, day boarding is £24k and full boarding about £44k.
If her figures are correct, and she does appear to lead a frugal life, then they probably work out. Still - they must have searched long and hard for her, and she's clearly a ridiculous outlier. The icing on the cake, however, is the reason why she has to go private...
Her first child felt excluded at the local state school, because they were poor, and she couldn't afford £150 trainers!
EDIT: A quick benefits check, suggests that if she just has the one dependent child (the daughter is now 20), then she could be on an after tax income of approx £2300 a month, it's easily doable. And frankly if she's a frugal as she implies, then the extra £50 a month, isn't going to break the bank.
That’s brilliant.
There is definitely more to this story. Maybe it’s a double edged article…VAT on school fees and a dig at benefit scroungers “earning” so much they can send their kids to private school!!!
But you can look up the fees of independent schools, and there aren't any in that area that are charging £5600 a year. They charge that per term. The very cheapest in that area was high 2000s to low 6000s per term, and they have 3 terms per year, so you're looking at over £8k per year at the lowest rate. Way too much doesn't add up in this story.The fees are apparently £5600, reduced due to a bursary to £3360. This is next to a graph in the article, which says average day schools, prior to the VAT increase, are now £20k, day boarding is £24k and full boarding about £44k.
Are we seriously debating whether a single person on £12k, with no other means of support, can afford to send their child to private school?
I know couples with a combined income of over twenty times that who complain about how hard it is!