Taking Holidays in Termtime
Our government has announced that it is going to investigate why so many children are being taken out of school during term and going on holiday.
The figures, it says, show that the number of people being given fixed penalties has trebled over the last three years to about 15 or 16,000 (figures aren’t available yet so I’m guessing it might reach 16,000). A couple of points. Firstly not all local authorities issue penalties so the true figure is considerably underestimated and secondly it doesn’t include schools in the private sector.
So what to make of this.
It seems to me that this is a case of the blindingly obvious. In summer, the cost of holiday per person goes up by at least 30% which for a family of four will probably amount to at least £400 ( I hear cries of being too conservative) but the fine is £50if paid in 28 days and £100 if not. Since there is no criminal record involved in having this fine it makes economic sense to me to pay the fine, go on holiday in termtime and save money.
Having saved the government tens of thousands of pounds in solving this issue, maybe they can now use the money saved to contribute to a long awaited insurance scheme for airline passengers. (sorry for mentioning this again, but hells teeth, this is dragging on and on and on…)
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