MONEY MORAL DILEMMA: Should Fannie contribute to Mae's council tax?

Susan_Frost

No she should not pay.

At the end of the day, generally the laws and rules are made to try to support certain people at certain times in their lives, but there is no way everyone can be made exactly equal, life aint like that. There are too many parameters which affect things, it is up to people to make decisions around what is out there. Fannie is a student, and manages her money to suit her circumstances, Mae works, and has to do the same.

There are all sorts of what ifs, but if two people who are at different stages in their lives, decide to live together, they are already not on a level playing field financially. Why should one subsidise the other? and I do mean the student subsidising the worker. Both are in constrained financial circumstances, but have choices with what life can offer, and what they will do with what they have got.

Yes, if they have the time and/or need then students can work to subsidise their living, and money is very tight for them. But I would prefer that the students of this country worked hard at their degree and came out as highly qualified in their personal subject as possible, than were tired and stressed having to find extra money for this and that because of someone else's choices.

Mae has made her choices, for whatever reason. But those choices are personal to her and she has to live in the real world too. If they decide financially it is not viable to live together, so what. It should not destroy their friendship, there will always be differences within their lives, and they can't make adjustments for everything. They will never, ever, be entirely equal financially or anything else.

sambelina78

I lived with friend for a year who was a student, and we split the 75% equally down the middle... the reason being was that she was a PhD student and the university gave her a decent bursary of £1000 a month tax free... plus because that money was a bursary she was entitled to take on paid work throughout the year for which she could claim tax back on too as she didn't work enough to take her over the tax free earnings threshold. At the time, her grand a month wasn't that much less than what i took home after tax, national insurance and pension contributions anyway... so in fairness she had as much income as i did and i thought why should i stump up all the bill? As her extra income from working (marking under-grads work, running seminars) gave her a bit of money she probably took home more than me in the end... and we split all the other household bills in half anyway. She moved in with me to save her renting crappy student digs so her accommodation was much nicer than she may have had, and i offered to pay half of her car parking permit for the road our flat was on (i didn't have a car, needed her to take me to the supermarket, and the permit was only £50 a year). I don't think i was mean in asking her because her financial situation was very different to what we used to live on when we were first undergraduate students... she certainly has not had to scrimp and save!!

I might have a different attitude if the student literally had no money, and lived off an overdraft and a student loan... but then i probably wouldn't want to live with that anyway...

agentj1976

Fannie should absolutely pay half of the council tax. It is her choice to stay with her friend rather than in a student household. I did the same and contributed and think that this is only fair.

GiveItBack

I had this - moved in with a researcher - turned out to be a postgrad researcher, so she said she shouldn't pay any CT. - Her income was about as much as mine (before my tax). So really depends on the situation of the 'student'. Settled things amicably in the end by sharing costs 50% of CT me 25% her.

gordonw

How come all these poor hard done by penniless students have the money to go "boozing"at week ends?????
I am retired and have just had my tax assessment after the loss of the 10% allowance and we cant afford to go out.
Thats for 47 years N.I.tax etc. I have to pay my way and so should they.

littlemissmoney

rebore wrote: »

To say students shouldn't pay council tax because they can't afford to is downright ignorant. They have a great deal more support than full time workers.

Welcome to MSE :rolleyes:

I have been a student paying no council tax and I am now a full time worker paying council tax. I am A LOT better off financially as a worker. How could you possibly be worse off? Students need "a great deal more support" because they have a great deal less money!

niki23

I am in a situation to do with this, although I am the non-student.

My boyfriend and I share a room and decided that instead of finding our own place we would continue to flat share to save some money (particularly as I have just graduated so have a big overdraft and nothing to my name).

When we started to look for people to share the house the 2 people we liked the most were post-grad students (unfortunately at our age the majority of applicants were students still!), I am the only one working so I said that I would pay the majority if they could help me out by giving me £20 a month towards this (I would still be paying over 50%). My boyfriend and one of the students are doing pHDs and are on good money so were happy to pay.

The forth person is doing an MBA borrowing money off his parents to do so for a year, so is a poorer student.
I made it very clear about the council tax situation before he moved in. Additionally he had the choice of two rooms a bigger one going for £340 and a smaller one going for £320, we even said if he took the smaller room we would reduce it by another £15 to £305 (and put up the bigger room), but he chose to take the bigger room.

He has now turned around and said after signing the contract that he can't afford the council tax. I feel this is really quite a selfish attitue, he should have taken the smaller room and saved himself £35 a month, or not drink quite so many pints when we go to the pub, 4 pints would pay for £10 towards the tax. It is only £20, but it is the priciple; if I agreed to something, even verbally I would keep my word.
He should have found a house where he didn't have to pay and we could have found someone else willing to pay. We turned down one other student because they said they did not want to pay towards it.

I am now not sure what to do, whether I should ask the other 2 to split it with me, or just pay it myself.

I sometimes think that the student rate shouldn't apply to pHD students anyway, my boyfriend earns the equivalent of a 22k job and the other pHD student earns the equivalent of a 27K job!!! They both earn more than me a month, yet I still felt guilty about asking them to help me out!

niki23

Oh but I do agree with littlemissmoney for undergraduates, they are really poor and I would never ask one for council tax (but then I wouldn't live with one to avoid that situation!)

immortaljaz

Well, if Fannie is getting funded a bucketload for doing a MA or PHD, then perhaps she should contribute a little.

But!!!! As an undergraduate, myself, I don't have an awful lot of money. My parents earn just above the amount where I'd get extra financial support - and my loan didn't even cover my accomodation in my first year. (The middle road always seems to give me a big financial bxxxx slap.) They can't afford to give me much extra - so I'm trying to get a job (easier said than done because the local shops hate employing students - for the simple fact they usually go home for Xmas).

Of course I spend money on the occasional drink, but I'm not a big drinker*, and usually spend around £5 on a night out (including entry) one or two nights a week.

If I had a house (can't - have to go abroad for the last term - money NIGHTMARE because of euro ) I'd be gutted if someone wanted me to pay their council tax, as I pretty much live out of my overdraft for the year.

So, an unfortunate situation - Fannie shouldn't have to pay unless she's in a position where she can comfortably help out.

Some of you moneysavers seem to be very unsympathetic to the fact that plenty of students don't just drink away their money, and it all seems to go on course books (because we simply have to get the most obscure and expensive editions that they only have one bloody copy in the library for grrr :mad: [/rant])


*Read: I can't hold my drink so I stopped pushing my limits.

immortaljaz

gordonw wrote: »

How come all these poor hard done by penniless students have the money to go "boozing"at week ends?????
I am retired and have just had my tax assessment after the loss of the 10% allowance and we cant afford to go out.
Thats for 47 years N.I.tax etc. I have to pay my way and so should they.

We do pay our way. As soon as we can earn enough to do that - and when we can we have over £20 000 debt. I've worked out mine - as soon as I leave uni I'll have about £29 000 to pay off (if the tuition fees don't go up again!!:mad:).

That's why we can't (as a whole - there are exceptions) pay the tax. Because we are too busy paying for our education.

As for the boozing...it's fairly easy when you can buy a double vodka and coke for under £1.

Are you seriously saying you'd rather the youth didn't get to have fun when they're paying to work for the rest of their lives?