MoD reviews school payment perk

The Ministry of Defence is reviewing its policy of paying for military families to send their children to private schools after the annual bill topped £100m, it was revealed today.

Many independent schools, especially the smaller ones, have come to rely on the steady flow of pupils from military families. Kirkham grammar school, in Preston, Lancashire, is one of many schools that would struggle if the boarding school allowance was scrapped because it has long relied on the income from the payment.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show the cost of the benefit has risen from £67.5m in 2000/01 to an expected £100.2m this academic year, prompting concerns that the allowance could be axed, or significantly reduced.

The school allowance is designed for middle-ranking officers who are frequently posted overseas with their spouses. They often want to send their children to boarding school rather than risk disrupting their education as they change their location every two or three years.

The allowance was introduced in 1955 as a perk to a serviceman if his wife joined him when posted abroad. It does not cover servicemen who are sent off, unaccompanied by their spouses, on operational tours to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

However, fees have risen sharply over the past few years, increasing the burden on the taxpayer. The army, which absorbs the biggest proportion of the boarding school allowance, pays £3,496 per term for pupils in junior school and £4,557 for secondary school.

A MoD spokeswoman confirmed a review of the benefit was being carried out, but insisted it was just "routine".

She said: "It's policy in this department that all of our policies relating to allowances are reviewed every few years. We have to make sure it is money being spent properly."

The spokeswoman said the review was considering the future of the benefit beyond 2020 rather than in the short term.

According to the figures obtained by The Times, 5,436 service personnel are claiming the school fee allowance for 2006/07, for a total of 7,705 children.