Student being made to pay council tax- advice please!

katy1987

Hi all

I'm posting on behalf of my OH, Mike. We're both students and we live with one other full-time student. Mike is resitting some units from his second year, so technically is in a repeat year (whilst myself and our housemate are in our third year). We recently got a letter requesting council tax payments, so we gave the appropriate info to prove ourselves exempt. Now, though, Mike has had a letter saying that he does not qualify as he is classed as a part time student, and requesting that he pay council tax of £210 a month for the property (taking into account the 25% discount for living with full time students.

Now, by this logic, wouldn't he be eligible for income support/housing benefit/council tax benefit? I'm asking as I am really not sure, we seem to keep finding conflicting pieces of advice!

Mike gets a lot for student loans/grants (not sure exactly how much but his Jan instalment received today was about £2200 I think! lots!) but no uni bursary. He isn't working right now as he's been working on his final year project early, and frankly is given enough to survive on from the student loans company.

The main questions I'm asking are:
- Does he really have to pay council tax? Technically he's an unemployed, part time student with no savings.

-Does anyone know if he's eligible for any benefits?

and:
-If he's getting £2200 a time for maintenance loan/grant instalments, does this mean the uni/SLC consider him a full time student?

Thanks for reading, hope you guys can help!

Katy

TrickyNiki

My first port of call would be the university to request a council tax exemption certificate. The universitys supply these on request and some give them directly to the council if they are needed.

Check what is student status is with the student loans company, they will tell you what base his loan is paid on (full/part time/sandwich). If it is full time then you have another point to raise with the council

I would also speak to the student advice service at the university as they can also help to clear up these matters.

Hope this helps.

katy1987

Thanks for your quick reply Niki! In response to your suggestions:

the council tax letter stated that, "On checking with Portsmouth University...the course [Mike is] taking fails to meet [the] criteria", so I'm not hopeful the uni will give him an exemption certificate. Also, our collective experience of the finance office is that the staff, although friendly, seem uninformed about this type of situation (and other situations we've encountered in the past). They basically said "well, if the letter says you have to pay it, then you have to pay it." But I'm sure that can't be right! He can't afford to pay it in his current situation. (Although I'm aware he receives a lot of money from the SLC.)

I will definitely make sure he follows all of your advice, thank you very much Niki.

Anyone else got experience of these circumstances or any other advice?

farso

Hi

Just been having a look for you and it does appear that he will be liable for the council tax as he is not a full time student.

link:
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/tax/council_tax.htm#Howmuchisthecounciltax

Under discounts

Sorry!

Edit:
Also this link, with heavier context to students: http://www.canterbury.gov.uk/faq/questions/393/

katy1987

Damn! Thanks for looking those up for me Farso. I think we'll have to go up to the civic offices to see if he can get Council Tax Benefit, if nothing else. The bill does say he may be eligible for that. Cheers guys xx

Oldernotwiser

I'm sorry I can't do a link for this but the question has been asked and answered on here before, that someone in this situation IS classed as a full time student, both for funding and for Council Tax Exemption. The thread was started on 08 09 2008 by a poster called Elsterap and the title was Failed a module as FullTime student, so going PT, lots of problems!

You need to look at the advice from a poster called Shivster who knew a lot about this situation and posted chapter and verse on how to proceed. I hope that this enables you to sort the situation out.

katy1987

Oldernotwiser, that's great! Thanks so much. Shivster's info is going to be put to good use later. Brill!

[Deleted User]

I was just coming here to post the same advice again - good luck!
linkies
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14071269&postcount=15
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14073655&postcount=17

katy1987

Thanks Shivster. I printed out your references to the appropriate legislation and sent Mike off with it today, he didn't have a lot of luck. I was wondering if you might be able to offer advice on who he needs to talk to. He went to see 'the person who deals with giving out CT exemption certficates', who told him he was a part time student. He said talking to her was like banging his head against a wall, and he didn't even get to brandishing the legislation at her because she wouldn't listen to him. I might go with him next time he goes (I said he gave up too easily!) but was wondering if you could offer some insight into whether we can go over her head to ask somebody else. I don't even know what her job title is, mind.

What's your point of view in these situations Shivster, if you don't mind me asking? Are you a solicitor? (I noticed you said 'my clients' in one of your posts.)

One more thing- well, two. Mike is only resitting one unit per semester, so does that still mean he's studying a full time course on a part time basis? Also, he is only paying £600 tuition fees instead of the £3145 (I think) the uni usually charges. So does that mean THEY consider him part time?

Sorry to ask questions that have sort of been answered, I was just hoping for some clarification. Thanks again!

Oldernotwiser

katy1987 wrote: »

What's your point of view in these situations Shivster, if you don't mind me asking? Are you a solicitor? (I noticed you said 'my clients' in one of your posts.)

!

My info on this stops at the post I referred to you but I'm fairly sure that Shivster described him/herself as a student adviser.

katy1987

Thanks, didn't spot that bit!