A mum and dad have called out their children's school for hitting them with a hefty fine for taking their family on holiday during term-time.
Paul Benson, dad to a son and daughter, said that he decided to take the kids away on holiday during a schooling term as it was "significantly cheaper", reports Yorkshire Live.
He has also branded the pricey punishment - costing them £480 altogehter - as "unfair".
Paul and his wife Jessica took their children, Ruby and George to Florida twice in the past, and were fined £240 each time, reports the Daily Record.
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The dad noted that the school warned them before their last trip in September 2022, as this holiday would have a significant effect on one of their children's educations.
Paul, from Redcar, Yorkshire, added: “My wife is a hospital theatre nurse who worked during the Covid crisis and they have a massive backlog of operations they are doing at the moment and it is difficult for us to get time off when we can all go together.
“It’s not like they are truant students, they might have had a two week holiday and two or three sick days. It’s significantly cheaper to go outside term time.
"A family of four like us to go to Florida during the summer holidays - we’d never be able to afford it.
“To go in August you can be looking at twelve grand, but then a week or two later in September its £3,700, so you think: ‘Well we’ll take the fine’.
“If you can’t afford to go during the holidays, you are penalised for it, that’s how it makes you feel.”
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The events and hospitality worker even admitted that he and his wife were in two minds about making the same decision again - after being warned about their children's attendance at school.
He added: “Some parents may be on a higher income and be able to afford the inflated prices during the summer holidays.
“But I work hard full-time and my wife works for the NHS so why can’t we have that entitlement to go on a holiday?
"We seem to be one of the few countries in the world that has this system [of fines], it seems unfair, and should be properly approached on a case-by-case basis.
“If you are taking the mick with poor attendance to start with, maybe you shouldn’t be granted that holiday, but if you are not abusing the system you should be entitled to take a family holiday when you want without being fined.
"It’s a time to bond and for children to learn new life skills."
Redcar and Cleveland Council said it would review the current criteria for issuing fines and explore other solutions following their case.
Recent figures show that the fines in Redcar and Cleveland for school-term absences dropped dramatically during the coronavirus pandemic for obvious reasons. In 2021/22 £12,941 worth of fines were issued in the borough - compared to approximately £57,000 in 2019/20.
However, following the pandemic, the annual fine total has leapt by 257 per cent - coinciding with an increased amount of term-time holidays that parents have communicated to schools. The number jumped to £46,235 in 2022/23.
Department for Education guidance means local councils have to draw up and publish a code of conduct for issuing fines for non-attendance to be adhered to by schools, local authority officers and the police.
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