WEALTHY parents who earn up to £100,000 a year are eligible to apply for means-tested bursaries from private schools for their children. Fee discounts were believed to be for pupils from modest backgrounds, but independent schools have a financial cut-off point that includes higher earners.

Ross Greer, the education spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, said the revelations called into question the charitable status enjoyed by the schools, which comes with lucrative tax breaks. “It’s utterly ridiculous to offer bursaries to the richest 10 per cent of families and continue to claim that your bursary programme shows your commitment to the charitable purpose of supporting those on low incomes. Elitist education is not and should not be seen as a charitable activity, allowing it to enjoy significant tax breaks,” he said.

However John Edward, director of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools, said: “Gross family income is one of the measures tested – of course school fees are a post-tax cost, and families often have more than one child they are seeking to place. The independent sector would like nothing more than the availability of high-value bursaries to be better known and more widely accessed – as the results speak for themselves.”

Around 30,000 children and young people attend independent schools north of the border, accounting for nearly five per cent of pupils. Many of the institutions are classed as charities by virtue of meeting a statutory test that involves providing “public benefit”. In the case of private schools, the public benefit is linked to the £31m they spend on means-tested assistance for families who could not otherwise afford the full fees. However, an analysis by this newspaper has found that the eligibility for support in some cases is so wide that it includes affluent families.

Hutchesons’ Grammar in Glasgow, which charges up to £12,168 a year, has a means-tested bursary fund, but it is parents whose joint income exceeds £65,000 who are “unlikely” to be successful. Kelvinside Academy uses the same figure. Glasgow Academy, which charges up to £12,384 a year for its services, is also “unlikely to be able to help” parents with a bursary if they earn over £65,000, but the figure rises to £75,000 for two children. Similarly, Edinburgh-based George Heriot's stipulates that total gross household income must not be above £58,000 a year for “Heriot bursary” applicants.

The figures are adjusted to take account of additional children in the family and, in common with other schools, eligibility also looks at capital assets.

George Watson’s College (GWC), a day school, said means-tested support is calculated on a sliding scale based on savings, capital and gross household income, with the income part stretching to families on £60,000 a year if they have one child.

However, of the 184 pupils who received support in the current school year at GWC, 37 received a 100 per cent bursary, the gross income threshold for which was £15,000 a year. In the same group, 56 per cent of the 184 pupils benefited from 51-99 per cent fee support, which can only be given if the income threshold is between £15,001 to £33,000 a year.

Other schools do not have any income cut-off point for applicants seeking means-tested support. Fettes College in Edinburgh, which can charge £33,480 for boarders, considers a range of variables when assessing applications, such as cash savings, cost of living and the number of children.

Asked whether the school would consider an application if the parents earned either £60,000, £80,000 or £100,000, a Fettes spokesman said: “The figures you mention could all potentially be considered but this very much depends on the variables outlined.”

Dr John Halliday, Rector of the High School of Dundee, said his school also considered a range of factors: “In all cases the level of a bursary is determined by the extent of financial need and therefore applicants are required to complete an application form which provides details of their income and capital. Where there is no financial need, no bursary will be granted.”

Lord Foulkes, a Labour peer who has been critical of private schools, said he had been under the impression means-tested assistance was for the disadvantaged. He said: “This makes the bursary system looks ridiculous and undermines the whole basis of schools getting charitable status. It is manifest nonsense and the sooner the charity regulator realises this, the better.”

SNP MP Tommy Sheppard, whose Edinburgh constituency includes private schools, said: "I have always been of the view that charitable status for private schools is a balance sheet exercise, where the tax breaks exceed the bursaries given to low-income families."

Scottish Council of Independent Schools director Edward, whose organisation represents private schools, said: “Every school has been ramping up their means-tested fee assistance in recent years. The overall amount is three times what it was, for the same amount of pupils. There are hundreds of pupils who now receive 100 per cent total fee remission, and one in three in Scotland receive some kind of assistance. The issue for schools, and for OSCR [the regulator], is to ensure that the availability of fee assistance is as widely known as possible, so that those in most need can access it if they wish.”