[help please] Student council tax exampltion question - do i pay on summer holiday

fisheddie

Hi and first of all thank you for all your time to click in and read this thread.

Basically my girlfriend was a student last year in Leicester, full time studentship of course ends in July then she moved to Oxford on July the 28th and started another course for 3 years from Sep 2006.

When council tax sent the original bill through, she had sent in her cetificates and then received an a justified version of the bill. So she got her examption on the bill from Sep (whenever it said on the original student cetificate) but still has to pay since 28th July (date moved in) till September?

We have sent 3 letters and got no response (one of them was actually delivered in person), all 3 letters had her phone number and emails so they could get in touch if they want to. But all she has received again was the a reminder, then today a COURT SUMMONS...

Tried to speak to a rep and all they said was since she was in transition in between universities, and those 2 months will be excluded from the examption and she will has to PAY...

I just do not undersatnd/agree, she was a student, then the summer holiday is not her fault and there will not be any full time course on during summer, so there is no way to aviod that. She even said if you are going from A-Level to University you still have to PAY???

At the end, i just couldnt bear it, then asked have you got any documentation saying that student in transition needs to pay then she was speechless. But the end story - my gf still has to pay. which i think is absulotly unreasonable.

Is there anyone here might be able to offer some opinions/help? Any input will be much appreciated!!!

[edit] hm... or should this thread be in the StudentMoneySaving section? If a mod think so then please move it for me please.

zar

Unfortunately I think she does have to pay for the time that she's not a student. I had to for the summer between finishing my undergrad degree and starting my masters degree.

Its bad that they didn't reply to your letters though - so unhelpful! I think she had better pay somehow or other before it goes to court, or she might get a CCJ that could affect her credit rating (I think).

Sorry can't be of more help.

fisheddie

Thanks for the reply Zar, i just dont think that is right for them to charge between universities...

I guess councils being useless is not a news anymore...

Any more opinions on this matter? Thanks

rosysparkle

I can't see any reason for them not to charge, strictly your gf is not a 'student' on a registered course while she is between universities.

jennifernil

I would agree. Summer holidays while on the same course at the same university is different from a holiday between two different courses, especially when they are at two different universities.
In between courses she is a regular non exempt person. If she was working/earning she might qualify for some council tax benefit but she would have needed to apply for it. If she was on benefits then this should have been taken care of at the same time.
Was she the only non student in the property? If so then she will have to pay 75%. And if there were 2 or more non students then she would be due to pay her share of the full bill.

fisheddie

I kind of understand it better now. But i am pretty sure back in few years ago it happened to me and i spoken to someone then they have exampted me (hence i just thought that was the rule).

It is herself and her sister living in the property at the moment and they both are full time student. the bill for 2 months comes to £156.75.

But then it still does not explain why the council has not responded/acknowledged to any of her letters. All there is is the Court Summons with extra £45 cost, which i think is unfair.

Yeah she didnt pay it because she didnt think she needs to and thought there was (I still think there might be ) a mistake and was trying to solve it by sending letters and even hand them in personally

kittiwoz

I've been in this situation myself and am quite sure she has to pay but if she was the only person liable during the time when she wasn't a student, i.e. her sister was continuing on the same course she was on last year, she can claim a 25% single person's discount. I agree it is very unfair.

It is all very well saying she could have got a job over the Summer but most companies ask about your plans and availability for the future at interview making it extremely difficult to get a job unless she was prepared to lie at interview and write off any possibility of using that employer as a reference in the future. I made the mistake of living off savings rather than applying for JSA and was told that since I was not claiming benefits and couldn't demonstrate my income, since I didn't have one, I would not be able to claim housing benefit but I don't think that's actually true.

Your girlfriend should phone the council straight away and explain the situation, including their failure to reply to her letters. She should say that she is willing but unable to pay and say that she believes she is entitled to council tax benefit. She needs to be able to state her income (if she has one) and her savings. She should really have phoned them much sooner to sort it out. She may need to be quite pushy on the issue of council tax benefit. She is probably best demanding to be sent a leaflet explaining the grounds for entitlement. Whether they will stop demanding immediate payment in full and allow time for council tax benefit to be calculated or whether they will still want payment now and rebate her the cb later I don't know. I think it is likely they will not waive the £45 summons fee either way. She's going to have to pretty much throw herself on their mercy which is something they have little of in my experience. Hopefully they will take pity on her and agree some sort of installment plan.

amyandoli

i had to pay council tax between alevel and uni, and again between uni course 1 and uni course 2. very annoying as i didnt have a job inbetween.

jennifernil

I would not have thought it would be difficult to find some type of job for the summer, even if it was only at the minimum wage. That would bring in about £200 per week less tax and NI.

fisheddie

Thank you all very much for the input, so the outcome was clear as crystal:pay the money and refuse the court summon charges tomorrow. As with me few years back, i guess that was just pure luck.

She didnt get no job nor savings during the summer cos she was very busy sorting out the new uni plan. But then it's no ones fault and she still has to pay anyway.

Again, many many thanks to you guys and i knew this is the place for answers like this

kittiwoz

jennifernil wrote:

I would not have thought it would be difficult to find some type of job for the summer, even if it was only at the minimum wage. That would bring in about £200 per week less tax and NI.

Neither would I til I tried it. That's why I didn't claim JSA. I was sure someone would take me on but even office temping requires experience nowadays and I can't drive so all that was left was telesales where you are on commission, have to work a week in hand (unpaid), are constantly abused by supervisors and the people you're ringing up and get fired if you don't make enough sales (and you can't without at least slightly conning people). I think it varies a lot depending on where you are but round here there are plenty of desperate people and it is ver much an emplyers market.