UK parents launch 'legal challenge' over VAT raid from Labour
Sir Keir Starmer faces a LEGAL CHALLENGE from furious parents over a VAT raid. The new Labour Party government leader faces a legal bid from a mother of an autistic child who has kick-started a High Court challenge the private schools VAT raid.
The mum claims it violates her daughter's right to education. Alexis Quinn said she is representing thousands of parents in a similar position and says her daughter Addison, 12, has been diagnosed with autism and dyspraxia.
She wants a judicial review of the Government changes to the VAT Act 1994. Ms Quinn, who earns £1,900 per month as a charity worker, told the Mail on Sunday: "My biggest fear is that we will no longer be able to afford the fees and my daughter will no longer be able to go to a school that she's thriving in.
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"Instead she will have to attend a school that she may suffer in." The mum aged 40, said: "The environment at school was overstimulating for her, she wasn't performing with the curriculum and socially she was being bullied and victimised due to her differences.
"She began having tummy aches and headaches and would cry on returning home and leaving for school. She refused to eat and regressed in her ability to dress and manage self-care. But at the time, fearing the fines that the Government were inflicting for non-attendance and the current Government are continuing to do so, I'm ashamed to say that I was forcing her into school."
With Labour's announcement that it will charge private schools 20 per cent VAT from January next year, Ms Quinn says she has been told by her daughter's headteacher that the £16,800 per year fees she currently pays will rise.
"My dad is an Army veteran and was a prison officer and my mum is an ex-police officer. They are public servants – they're not wealthy," she said, adding: "We're just about able to afford the fees, so any increase would be disastrous."
She has instructed lawyers to send a pre-action letter to the Treasury and Department for Education.