School association leaders call for allowance uplift for military families

  • 16th September 2024

In an open letter to The Treasury, the leaders of the Independent Schools Council and the Boarding Schools’ Association have called for the Continuity of Education Allowance to be increased once VAT is added to school fees in January.

The chief executive of the ISC, Julie Robinson, and director of the BSA, David Walker, have warned that Labour’s VAT policy could make it harder to recruit parents to serve in the armed forces, “risking the security of our nation”.

The letter states: “Currently, over 4,000 children who have at least one parent serving in the armed forces receive Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) through the Ministry of Defence… The majority of these children attend independent schools by necessity; there is not capacity in the nation’s state boarding schools to accommodate them. The choice of a boarding school allows children stability.”

Christian San José, headmaster of Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire, has warned: “Many of our families are not officers, so they have to carefully budget… any increase in fees will hit those families hard. I have been speaking to families in absolute crisis, not knowing if fees will rise in January and if they will have to withdraw their children. Some may have to leave the military.”

The Telegraph has also reported that the British Army is consulting military families amid concerns over school fees rising in January as a result of VAT.

Families have been asked to share their views by 23 September in the poll drawn up by the Army’s policy team and shared on its social media channels.

The CEA is designed to provide stability for children whose parents frequently work away and can cover up to 90% of boarding school fees.

Ministers have so far held off from granting a VAT exemption for those in receipt of CEA and said it will “closely monitor” the effect of its tax plans on those children.

The Telegraph View stated that “the impact is being felt especially acutely by the Armed Forces. This is a hammer blow to morale at a time when the Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force are facing serious challenges in recruitment and retention. Ensuring stability for families, especially with children of school age, is one of the few ways in which the strains of life in uniform can be mitigated.”

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