With the cost-of-living crisis continuing to bear heavily upon people across the country, the chancellor is right to focus his efforts on halving inflation to keep prices down and reduce its currently profound impact on pay packets.  

Notwithstanding that overall priority, Jeremy Hunt and his team must look far and wide to identify further ways they can ease the financial burden on families struggling with phenomenally high energy prices and inflation ahead of the Spring Budget.    

An example of a focused but effective measure would be to abolish the so-called school uniform tax that affects so many parents and children.  

An unfair tax

School uniform is a helpful part of the culture of our schools. It acts as a social leveller, helps to reduce bullying, promotes pride and belonging among pupils and the wider community and there is evidence to suggest that it boosts children’s academic performance.   

Yet at present, all clothing and shoes for children 14 years old or older are subject to the full standard rate of 20 per cent VAT. 

While it is understandable that the Treasury is not in a position to remove this tax altogether, particularly as larger sizes could be worn by older children and adults alike, there is an obvious option to remove it for specific school uniform items that are only ever going to be worn by schoolchildren.   

The government recently published new guidance on the cost of school uniform, which many welcomed.

In the debate on this in the Commons, I stated: “I want to be unambiguously clear…that value is important, and that there are parents and carers for whom the cost of schoolwear is a very serious issue”.

Time to act

Reducing the burden on parents already facing financial pressures is a priority for this government. It is only common sense to help families who are already juggling a plethora of additional costs with the price of school clothing.

The current tax system penalises some children and not others. It is unfair that parents of children who are in some way bigger than what HMRC determines to be an “average” 14-year-old are forced to pay VAT sometimes years before their children reach that age.

All children should be treated with parity. The principles of school uniform should also be applied to the tax system that affects them.   

School uniform is essential clothing for many good reasons, but the tax system doesn’t currently treat it as such. VAT was created as a tax on non-essential goods.

School uniform is an essential part of school life for our country’s children. These are hard-wearing fit-for-purpose garments that represent the best value option for parents, considering they are worn continuously for 195 days per year.

Family values

We should not make it harder for parents to send their children to school smartly dressed and ready to learn. Brexit allows us to make these sorts of choices. We should be taking advantage of this.

The UK is no longer bound by the EU VAT Directive, which mandates member states to coordinate VAT rates to ensure that there is no unfair tax competition across national borders. Do we really think that school uniform is a luxury good that nations compete over? Is it really fair to continue to penalise UK families with unnecessary EU strictures?

Research carried out by the Schoolwear Association estimates that, while helping considerable numbers of individual families each year, removing the VAT on school-specific uniform items across the whole UK would cost HM Treasury only £13 million per annum - representing excellent value for money. Families know how to spend their money better than central government does.

The Spring Budget is the right time to abolish VAT on school-specific uniform items and help support families in every part of the country.  

Andrew Lewer is MP for Northampton South and a member of the Commons Education Select Committee