A block is two numbers that have to stay in step: hours bought and hours delivered. Every lesson taught, shortened or cancelled late has to decrement the right balance. Some schools sell blocks with the DVSA practical test fee included, which puts a pass-through cost inside the balance; GOV.UK listed that fee in September 2026 as £62 on weekdays and £75 for evenings, weekends and bank holidays.
Cash from a block lands in the bank on day one and is earned over the weeks that follow. Until an hour is taught it remains an obligation of the school. Tax follows the same timing. Section 6(4) of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 provides that where a payment is received before the supply would otherwise take place, the supply is treated as taking place when the payment is received, to the extent covered by that payment. A VAT-registered school therefore accounts for VAT on the full block at the point the pupil pays, before any of the hours have been taught. The VAT registration threshold stood at £90,000 of taxable turnover on GOV.UK in September 2026.
Blocks sold over the phone, by message or at the pupil's door are distance or off-premises contracts under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Regulation 30 gives a 14-day cancellation period running from the day the contract is entered into. Regulation 36 allows lessons to begin inside that window where the pupil expressly requests it, and on cancellation the pupil pays a proportionate amount for what was actually supplied up to the point the school was told. Where the required cancellation information was never given, the pupil can end up owing nothing at all. Schedule 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 separately lists terms that may be regarded as unfair, among them terms letting a trader retain sums paid when the consumer does not perform, and terms requiring a disproportionately high sum for services that have not been supplied. Whether a particular expiry or no-refund clause is unfair is decided on its own facts.
The approved driving instructor code of practice, agreed between DVSA and the National Associations Strategic Partnership and updated on 20 November 2025, is an industry code that instructors opt into and can show on their ADI registration. It asks them to safeguard and account for money paid in advance, to give terms of business before the first lesson covering price, lesson duration, refunds and cancellation by either party, and to keep a record of a pupil's progress including the number of lessons provided.
If block bookings are a material part of your income, the diary and the money have to sit in the same system. Look for a pupil account that holds hours purchased and hours remaining as a live balance, decremented automatically when a lesson is marked as taught, with part-hours handled properly for 90 and 120 minute lessons. Check that late-cancellation and no-show rules are configurable per school. Ask what happens on handover: can a balance move between instructors, can it move between pupils, and what becomes of it when a franchised ADI leaves with pupils on the books. Insist on a liability report that lists every pupil with hours outstanding, the money attached to them, and a comparison against payments received, exportable for your accountant. Test fees sold inside a block should be tracked separately from tuition hours so a moved or failed test does not corrupt the balance. If you are VAT registered, confirm the system records income at the date of payment as well as at delivery, and that refunds, partial refunds and credit notes are issued inside the software. Finally, check that your written terms of business, including refund and cancellation wording, can be attached to the booking and stored against the pupil record, because the obligation to have given them before the first lesson is easier to evidence when the software holds the timestamp.
Checked on 6 September 2026 against the approved driving instructor code of practice on GOV.UK (updated 20 November 2025), regulations 30 and 36 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, Schedule 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 6(4) of the Value Added Tax Act 1994, and the GOV.UK pages for VAT registration and driving test fees; fees and thresholds change, and this entry is general information rather than legal or tax advice on an individual case.