A quarter of all parents are being taxed on their children’s school uniform due to soaring levels of obesity, new figures show.
Under the current law, VAT is not charged on clothing designed for those aged 13 and under.
But rising obesity levels mean that more overweight youngsters are having to wear clothes designed for older children, and families are paying a total of £4million a year in VAT on top of the normal cost of schoolwear.
Taxes are incurred on boys’ shirts measuring more than 43in round the chest and trousers that are more than 28.5in round the waist.
The cut-off for girls is 28in round the waist and 41in round the bust.
On average, parents with overweight children pay an extra £20 a year in uniform, manufacturers say.
According to the Schoolwear Association, which represents the uniform industry, at least 25 per cent of families have to pay tax every time they buy blazers, shirts or trousers for their children. And with rising levels of childhood obesity, many more parents will fall victim to the 17.5 per cent VAT on their uniform.
Last week it emerged that BHS is selling size 18 school dresses for overweight girls as part of a new ‘generous fit’ range for those who cannot get into its normal sizes.
At the same time John Lewis said it stocked boys’ blazers up to a 48in chest and trousers up to a 40in waist, sizes normally worn by large adults.
It is now estimated that one third of all those aged 11 to 15 are overweight and the figures are expected to rise steadily over the next few decades.
Each year in England 220,000 more children become overweight or obese, according to the International Obesity Taskforce.
The Schoolwear Association is campaigning for the size limit to be scrapped so that all uniform - both primary and secondary - is free from VAT as long as it carries a school badge or emblem.
Manufacturers also warned that larger children are more likely to need bigger sizes more often, forcing parents to spend more on clothing.
Nick Buckland, of Price and Buckland, which supplies more than 3,000 different school uniforms, said: ‘Larger kids tend to grow more quickly, both outwards and upwards, if they are naturally tall.
‘This means families are having to pay for a new uniform several times a year.’
‘Over the last few years growing numbers of children have been taking larger sizes.
Kids are now wider and taller than they were several decades ago.
‘This is having a massive impact on parents and it is increasingly difficult for them to pay for their uniform. Even longer ties have VAT added on to them.’ It has been suggested that the tax hits poorer families hardest as they tend to have higher rates of obesity.
A spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs said there were currently no plans to change the VAT on uniforms but the situation was ‘ constantly under review’.
He added: ‘We welcome any suggestions from interested parties but obviously it would be impossible to change the VAT rules every few years just because children are getting progressively bigger.’
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Increasing obesity levels in our children is a very big problem here in the UK and it is very worrying that, according to very recent news stories, school uniforms are having to be made larger because of children’s increasing waistlines, which in turn, leads to the VAT problem. Quite plainly, in the UK at least, there is not going to be any easy or quick solution to the obesity problem in children for our nation as a whole without probably some heavy-duty government intervention and major changes at the societal level.
However, as individual parents there is a responsibility on us to do all we can to make sure our children have the right diet and take proper exercise, and we can take steps to make sure that happens, hard as that might be, since as parents we will be fighting against all the temptations and habits that kids have today that are making them so overweight.
One of the ways we can help our children is by finding enjoyable forms of exercise for them. We have provided some ideas on this in our blog at http://3wheelcruiser.org.uk, where the latest post is on this very subject under the title “A Triton with the School Uniform?”
28 Aug 08 at 9:59 p #