“There is nothing so unfair as the equal treatment of unequal people.†(Thomas Jefferson)How can pension contributions NOT be included in assessed income? Some people don't have pension plans because they can't afford them, and know that they will be living on just a state pension when they are older. But if pension contributions are going to be taken into account when assessing fees then those people might as well start a pension plan because they will have nothing to lose! In which case it will be CH that will be losing out because more people will be paying less fees!
Lonely mum, I am afraid that there are all sorts of anomalies in the methods used to calculate assessed income. You can equally say that not all parents can afford mortgage protection insurance, which is allowed, or qualify for housing benefit, which is not assessed as income.
CH are eager to assess every penny of your income, but unwilling to recognise the costs which are frequently involved in working – not only pension contributions, but also the costs of commuting to work, dressing appropriately, and paying union dues or professional subscriptions. We were told that our occupational pension contributions must be assessed as income "in fairness to the self-employed"; but the self-employed are able to claim substantial 'allowable' costs against their income before tax, and might anticipate being able to provide for retirement from the capital value of their business. If the playing field needs to be levelled, then let’s see it levelled up rather than down! - the assesment should allow all working parents a standard percentage of their income for pension contributions.
Dinahcat is right, it is 'Victorian' for the Foundation to expect working parents not to pay into a pension. There is surely a danger that if CH continue to set the contribution scale at such unrealistic levels they will end up with no fee income at all, since only those assessed as being unable to contribute anything will be able to send their children to the school!