Answers to all your gift aid questions
ADEDICATED GROUP of professionals have been working behind the scenes to ensure our Jewish state schools (and the parents of their pupils) are able to continue claiming gift aid relief on voluntary donations/contributions. This has been an important campaign for the community, although the issue does not affect only Jewish state schools.
With increasingly challenging financial constraints on all UK state schools nationwide (whether Jewish or non-Jewish, faith or non-faith), more and more of them have looked to the parents for financial support. The ability to claim gift aid on these voluntary donations has therefore been of immense value to all state schools in this situation.
It is important for everyone to understand the legal rationale for claiming gift aid and to ensure schools remain compliant. Thanks to the generosity of accountants BDO we have therefore taken out an advertisement on the back of this supplement to provide a synopsis of the position.
While HMRC has removed its objections at present, it will be no doubt be keeping watch to see individual schools are following the gift aid rules precisely, so it is essential the guidelines are strictly adhered to.
In an ideal world, the Government would provide sufficient funding for our schools but, in reality, especially given the expense of technological advances, this is increasingly difficult. The concept of parents supporting their children’s schools is so important and it is perhaps this argument which is critical.
I once met a parent who was reasonably wealthy and, although he gave a donation to his son’s school, told me he refused to give a more significant sum, as he was unhappy with the education his son was getting. He was, however, donating to other good causes across the community.
What he needed to fully understand is, if we want better provision for our children, then as a community we need to support our schools. At the forefront must be the parents, who have the primary responsibility to educate their children and rely on the school to deliver this.
We are blessed to be living in a country that values education and provides good-quality state-funded education for all children. But this can be a double edged sword and there is a danger parents will have a sense of expectation that will offset their parental responsibilities to the school.
There is no doubt parents play a key role in the educational success of their children. However this support cannot be limited to the home.
We need to be active partners, supporting our schools. Indeed it should be a badge of honour, showing we care about our future and are willing to invest in it.
The concept of parents supporting the school is so vital
Rabbi David Meyer is executive director of Partnerships for Jewish Schools (PaJeS)