“How many mothers have experienced the heartbreak of having to point out to their three-year-old son which soldier coming off the plane is their Daddy?”, says Clare, an Army wife with three sons.
“The soldiers all looked the same to him and he had not seen his Daddy for nearly five months. He had spent probably half of his son’s life to that date on operational tours of duty or training.”
Clare is telling me about just one of the many sacrifices soldiers – and specifically their families – make while serving their country around the globe.
She continues: “At the age of five, my son had attended three schools. By the time he was 13 he was moving into his NINTH school.
“He had lived in four countries and spent five years in two locations in America, where each state has its own curriculum. There are very few international schools and we moved generally every two years, sometimes sooner.
“We spent sixth months in Germany before being posted to Wales, which again has a very different curriculum from England.
“[Despite being British] he could name every state in the USA, but had no clue where Edinburgh was on a map. He was woefully behind on basic sciences, languages, history and geography.
“How many friends did he have to say goodbye to as he left each school? His only constant companions were his brothers.”
A soldier says goodbye to his family before deploying to Afghanistan
PA
This stop-start lifestyle, which can have far-reaching consequences for children, is part and parcel of many military families’ lives.
But thankfully for Clare, her children were eligible for the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA).
This scheme sees the government pay up to 90 per cent of boarding school fees up to £27,024 pa for children of serving personnel, but restrictions exist.
As Clare explains, parents must pay at least 10 per cent of fees personally, before claiming back the £27,024.
If a boarding school charged £27,000 a year for example, the MOD would pay £23,400 (90 per cent) and the Forces family would pay £2,700 (10 per cent), an affordable figure for soldiers and officers alike.
As Clare highlighted, the scheme is invaluable to Forces’ families and offers the lifeline of stability for many children that forces’ life doesn’t afford.
It is also a major perk of serving in our Armed Forces as many boarding schools offer excellent education and extracurricular activities, motivating people to serve their country.
But, on January 1, Labour will upend this delicate situation by imposing 20 per cent VAT on private school fees.
The raid will force many boarding schools to hike up their fees well above the £27,024 cap, meaning military families could be priced out of boarding schools and with it the promise of stability for their children.
Indeed, the average boarding school fees are now £36,000 a year, meaning a Forces’ family would have to pay a minimum of £3,600 per child per year.
Outcry over the policy led to the government announcing they would raise the £27,024 cap to help military families.
But less than five weeks until the VAT raid is brought in on January 1, forces’ families still don’t know how much Labour will raise the cap.
An MOD spokesperson said: “We greatly value the contribution of our serving personnel, and we provide the Continuity of Education allowance (CEA) to ensure that the need for the mobility of service personnel does not interfere with the education of their children.
“In line with how the allowance normally operates, the MOD will continue to pay up to 90% of private school fees following the VAT changes on 1 January by uprating the current cap rates to take into account any increases in private school fees.”
Despite repeated requests for hard figures, GB News understands the cap is still being calculated by the MoD, leaving many Forces’ families worrying whether it will rise sufficiently.
Eton College has announced fees will be £63,000 a year from January 1
PA
Commentators have highlighted a similar situation in the Commons where Labour politicians are making noises about supporting military families but refusing to give any concrete detail.
On 25 November, Defence Minister Lord Coaker said: “The CEA will be increased to be consistent with the current policy of meeting the increase in VAT fees.”
On November 11, Conservative Ben Obese-Jecty asked the Defence Secretary John Healey: “How much will meeting the additional cost of VAT cost the MOD from its own budget?”
Healey replied: “We will publish the financial figures for the CEA in due course and in the normal way.”
It is difficult to model the impact on military families without knowing what the uprated cap will be.
But many boarding schools have announced massive fee increases from January 1, and some sums can be done that show the situation facing Forces’ families.
Wycliffe College, a boarding school with many Forces’ children, will charge £18,600 per term (£55,800 per year) for 2024/25.
This is partly in the wake of VAT rises, but also things like the rising cost of energy and staff bills via employers’ national insurance and minimum wage hikes.
Clearly, the government would have to raise the cap of £27,024 significantly, or many soldiers will not be able to pay the difference.
Currently, the British Army starts recruits on a salary of £25,200 a year, Lance Corporals on £32,615 and Sergeants on £42,510.
This rises for officers with Second Lieutenants starting on £39,671, Lieutenants on £41,026 and Captains on £50,540.
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The entire regular British Army could fit inside Wembley with 15,000 seats to spare
PA
“How many soldiers will be able to afford these new fees?” askes Clare.
“So much for the Armed Forces Covenant – ‘no child will be disadvantaged by their parents’ choice to serve their country’. Rubbish, another broken promise!
“If we did not have the support to send our boys to boarding school, they would certainly not have had the same chances to full fill their potential. This will certainly affect retention.”
The Armed Forces are currently enduring a retention crisis with five of the last 23 years seeing a net outflow of personnel.
Currently, the entire regular British Army could fit inside Wembley Stadium with 15,000 seats to spare, while a recent Times investigation revealed there are more civil servants in the MoD than active personnel across the three forces.
If Labour doesn’t raise the CEA cap sufficiently, it is a crisis that will only worsen.
Clare added: “Perhaps somebody should remind Rachel Reeves of the sacrifice that these kids make, they are certainly not privileged (you should see army housing).
“This will only make many families decide to leave the forces. They have not thought through the secondary and tertiary effects of this decision.”
As Clare explains, the CEA scheme is not about officers privately education their children, it is about stability for children of all ranks. Even then, choosing to use the scheme still isn’t easy.
“I chose to send my young sons away; we were living in another country, and we had to put them on an aircraft and wave them goodbye.
“They later admitted to me that for the first week of school each term, they cried every day.
“It’s not an easy decision, but, at last, they could enjoy long term friendships and truly experience school life without waiting to move on again.
“Boarding school provided stability that the forces lifestyle just doesn’t offer.
“The alternative is to leave behind the Forces’ life,” she added.
Labour’s VAT raid on private schools will come into effect on January 1, 2025.
