Government urged to end private school subsidies for military personnel

Labour attacks ‘absolute scandal’ as MoD spends millions on school fees while making thousands of soldiers redundant

The government is facing calls to end an “absolute scandal” in which the Ministry of Defence pays private school fees for the children of serving military personnel while troops are being made redundant.

Labour said there is “no legitimate reason” why the government should prioritise subsidies for private education over frontline troops after figures showed that the MoD spent £65.8m on school fees last year while making 2,900 soldiers redundant at a cost of £158m.

The figures, released in a parliamentary written answer from the defence minister Andrew Robathan to the Labour MP Pamela Nash, show that £212m has been spent on the continuity of education allowance since 2010. The MoD paid £74m in 2010-11, £72.2m in 2011-12 and £65.8m in 2012-13. The MoD separately told the Commons defence select committee that it was making 2,900 army personnel redundant in 2012-13 at a cost of £158m.

Nash, the Labour MP for Airdrie and Shotts, said: “This seems like the completely wrong priority given the current pressures on funding at the MoD. But there is no legitimate reason why in the 21st century the MoD needs to be so heavily subsidising private education over the jobs of frontline troops.

“And it is an absolute scandal when you think that this amount of money is being spent at a time when thousands of soldiers are losing their jobs in order to supposedly save money. How many of these thousands of soldiers would these millions of pounds have kept on the frontline instead sent to the dole queue? I really hope that the Tories reconsider this spending before they plan any more reductions in the armed forces or cuts to equipment.”

In his answer to Nash, Robathan said the allowance helped to give service personnel’s children a stable education from the age of eight. The figures do not distinguish between payments made to parents who educate their children at private or maintained schools.

Robathan added: “It is worth remembering that this allowance is open to all eligible personnel, officers and other ranks.” He said about 50% of current claimants were from other ranks. Nash said this still favoured officers because they only make up 14% of the army.

The continuity of education allowance is used to pay school fees for the children of soldiers, diplomats and aid staff. In its advice to parents, the MoD says the allowance is designed to subsidise a boarding school education to “help provide continuity of education for a child and enable the spouse of a service person to accompany them on postings”. Parents are expected to contribute a minimum 10% of the school fees.

The advice says there are a number of state boarding schools “which provide excellent value for money” because they only charge for accommodation costs. But the MoD advises that most boarding schools are independent and it refers parents to the Independent Schools Council. Its <a class="colorbox" …read more