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

niki23

immortaljaz wrote: »

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])

Yeah I would never ask an undergraduate for council tax, but the point I made about saving is that now I am on a wage, I don't get a big lump sum to help me out with things like deposits on a house or anything, and it isn't really appropriate to ask my parents anymore.

I live in a cheap house in london, but I have just paid £700 on a deposit and then £300 on rent (which is half because I am sharing!), and because it is really hard to find a furnished house in london, I had to pay £200 for living room furniture (thankfully I didn't have to buy anything for my room, beds are expensive), and that was with the help of freecycle. So that is £1200 already (more than I earn a month!), plus I need to pay £94 for a london travelcard for the month and buy food! When I first moved to london my parents lent me money for my first house which I then paid back. I will have to stump up another £1000 soon to pay off my overdraft. I think when I am a bit more established (or get a pay rise!) I will be ok, but first year of working is tough, unless you work as an undergraduate (and I did but only to make up my cost of living from my loan), you graduate with no money whatsoever! That is why a lot of people stay at home for a while to save some money! You need savings because there is no one who can bail you out anymore.

Saying that again, I wouldn't ask an undergraduate to help out, but then I wouldn't live with one (unless I was in a big house and there were other people working who could help pay it).

niki23

immortaljaz wrote: »

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:).

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?

I looked on my pay check at the amount of student loan I'm paying off each month, it doesn't even pay for the interest! How depressing!!!

And very much agree with the last comment!!

xelaine88x

I am currently in this situation as the student. I live with my partner and we both pay half of the council tax. My partner is in a minimum wage job, and my student loans + wages from my part time job mean i actually earn more money than him. I feel that it is fair for us to share the bill equally, as student or not, we both live there. And I really don't understand the whole "poor student" thing - no student loans are not enough to live on, but isnt that what part time jobs are there for???

sambelina78

niki23 wrote: »

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 - that does eem unfair that the PhD students earn more than you and won't contribute more... i wouldn't grumble at a 27k job as a worker, so maybe the Phd student shouod get in the real world... they clearly have the cash to contribute more than £20 a month... if they don't like it they shouod rent on their own

jimbo_G_2

I'm in a similar position to niki23 - my partner is a PhD student, whereas I work full time. Before we moved in we agreed I would pay all of the council tax (well the 75%), despite the fact that her stipend is around the same amount as I take home after all the money the government so kindly relieve me of! I think this is fair - regardless of how much you earn as a student, you are exempt from council tax. I'm sure as PhD students they'll end up on high paid jobs and end up paying a lot of income tax, so it's swings and roundabouts in my opinion.

I do agree with the comments regarding single persons occupancy being reduced to 50% - I think of what facilities I use of the council, and i'm sure it's far less than a family of 3-5.

niki23

jimbo_G wrote: »

I'm in a similar position to niki23 - my partner is a PhD student, whereas I work full time. Before we moved in we agreed I would pay all of the council tax (well the 75%), despite the fact that her stipend is around the same amount as I take home after all the money the government so kindly relieve me of! I think this is fair - regardless of how much you earn as a student, you are exempt from council tax. I'm sure as PhD students they'll end up on high paid jobs and end up paying a lot of income tax, so it's swings and roundabouts in my opinion.

This is fair enough because you agreed on it. If I did just live with my partner I probably would pay all the council tax (mostly because it would be considerably less as I wouldn't be living in a big house like we are now!). I didn't ask him for money last year because I was living with two other earning people. However now I am responsible for paying for a 4 bedroom house on my own, I have to ask them all for a contribution.
Next year I will not live with students. That is the lesson here.

mr-tom_2

Fannie and Mae should have thought about this before agreeing to live together and it is a bit late to start complaining now.

If working out the agreement ahead of living together, my reasoning would be this:
Fannie has a clear liability for 50%, Mae for 0%.

This leaves 25% of unclear liability, so split it down the middle, with Fanny paying 62.5% and Mae 12.5%.

If either is unhappy then they should live with people of their own liability category.