New figures show that soaring numbers of cash strapped parents are applying for loans to put their children through private school. It is estimated that since 2001-2 an extra 1 billion pound a year is being spent on private education, up from 6.9 billion to 7.9 billion last year. One high street bank has already reported as seeing a 38 per cent rise in loan applications for independent school fees over the last 12 months. And they expect to see numbers grow even further as fees have risen by as much as 50 per cent over the last 8 years.
So those parents taking out loans need to make sure that they shop around carefully to find a really competitive interest rate.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that families in the London area typically spent the most on education fees, with an average of 577.20 pounds per household year. Families in the East Midlands spent the least, averaging 140.40 pounds a year. These average expenditures were calculated across all households, which include those without children in private education and those without any children.
Figures from the Independent Schools Council show that average boarding school fees for boys are now around 21,600 pounds a year and for girls, it is 20,400 pounds. At the other end of the private schooling spectrum, the cost for pre-preparatory private education for two to seven-year-olds is between 1,000 and 1,500 pounds a term. No wonder a few parents need a loan or two!
These costs do, however, seem to have been subject to some underhand dealing. Recently the annual increases in private schools fees have fallen under the spotlight after 50 of the country's leading public schools were ordered to pay 3.5 million pounds after an inquiry into alleged fee fixing.
It emerged that schools including Winchester, Harrow, Eton, and Cheltenham Ladies' College will each pay 10,000 pounds and in addition, make average payments of 60,000 pounds to a new educational charity. These payouts arose after an investigation undertaken by the Office of Fair Trading. The schools were forced to admit that for 3 years they exchanged sensitive information about the fees they were intending to charge in the coming year.
Previous studies had already shown that tens of thousands of parents were making big financial sacrifices to send their offspring to private school amidst rising disillusionment within the state education sector. Many parents were juggling two or three jobs and cancelling holidays in order to find the money to continue sending their children to private education.
The Independent Schools Council has examined hundreds of thousands of postcodes collected from its 900 member schools. Surprisingly, nearly a quarter of the pupils come from average or below average income backgrounds. Of these, 10,000 lived in areas officially classified as being 'hard-pressed' and include people living in high rise flats, 'struggling families' on low incomes, and single parents on council estates.
And another survey found an increasing number of parents were putting money aside to save up for their children's education. 44 per cent of parents were saving specifically for education compared with just 12 per cent a few years ago.
A spokesman for the Independent Schools Council said, 'The fact that many parents are taking out loans - and therefore paying interest - to cover school fees reflects the great value many place upon high quality education.'
Author Resource:-
Need more money, want a Loan go to the Brokers Online web site and apply for a quote. Brokers Online offers interesting articles and information about Loans. We can also provide our UK clients with quotes for Life Insurance and many many more financial products
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.freebie-articles.com/images/rss.gif "XML Feed For RSS")
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites