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Court summons for council tax - But fulltime student @ 18hours per week of modules!!!
Comments
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i am an unemployed person who doesn't work/only works 9hours per week (and choose to do abit of study in my spare time),
therefore base my council tax bill in accordance with my income!''
It would depend on whether you meet the criteria for council tax support under the delegated scheme that you council will be running from 1 April 13.I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0 -
Yes as any student loans and bursary will count as income for benefits.
Why would a repayable loan count as 'income', when its just a loan that will have to be repaid like a creditcard?? :S
But even if they add my student loan and student grant together it still will only be £650 per month total.
And so way way below what even a low income earner could recieve from their salary+housing benefit.0 -
Very few students at my Uni have more than 12 hours of timetabled sessions and they are classed as full time students. The key here is in the wording - https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/full-time-studentsTo count as a full-time student, your course must:
last at least 1 year
involve at least 21 hours study per week
Not timetabled sessions, but study. Many courses say that timetabled sessions make up around 25% of the hours that you're expected to put in overall. 10 hours timetabled = 40 hours including the hours you should be putting in at home.
CIS is right that they're confusing things by putting in the number of hours that you're attending on the letter. At my uni it's a simple letter stating you're FT, no mention of hours. They actually determine FT or PT based on the number of credits that you're doing. 120 credits a year is a standard FT course, but you count as FT if you're doing 90 or more.
On a side note, if you're self employed you should be submitting a tax return each year, regardless of whether you earn over the tax threshold or not. Only exception is if HMRC have told you not to.0 -
Well if i have £0 income then im sure i will automatically be entitled
Not if you don't meet the required criteria to claim. You would have income (you can't offset self employed costs in the same way as you would for income tax) and some bursaries and loans are counted as income.I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0 -
Why would a repayable loan count as 'income', when its just a loan that will have to be repaid like a creditcard?? :S
But even if they add my student loan and student grant together it still will only be £650 per month total.
And so way way below what even a low income earner could recieve from their salary+housing benefit.
Read the regs and google, you asked for help it was offered.
If you don't like the answer tough, perhaps you would settle for the moon on a stick?0 -
That link is wrong (as are many parts of the gov.uk site)The key here is in the wording - https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/full-time-students
The actual regulations (council tax (discount disregards) order 1992) - define a full time course of education as
(my emphasis)4.—(1) A full-time course of education is, subject to subparagraphs (2) and (3), one—
(a)which subsists for at least one academic year of the educational establishment concerned or, in the case of an educational establishment which does not have academic years, for at least one calendar year;
(b)which persons undertaking it are normally required by the educational establishment concerned to undertake (whether at premises of the establishment or otherwise) for periods of at least 24 weeks in each academic or calendar year (as the case may be) during which it subsists, and
(c)the nature of which is such that a person undertaking it would normally require to undertake periods of study, tuition or work experience which together amount in each such academic or calendar year to an average of at least 21 hours a week during the periods of attendance mentioned in paragraph (b) above in the year.I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0 -
Very few students at my Uni have more than 12 hours of timetabled sessions and they are classed as full time students. The key here is in the wording - https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/full-time-students
Not timetabled sessions, but study. Many courses say that timetabled sessions make up around 25% of the hours that you're expected to put in overall. 10 hours timetabled = 40 hours including the hours you should be putting in at home.
CIS is right that they're confusing things by putting in the number of hours that you're attending on the letter. At my uni it's a simple letter stating you're FT, no mention of hours. They actually determine FT or PT based on the number of credits that you're doing. 120 credits a year is a standard FT course, but you count as FT if you're doing 90 or more.
On a side note, if you're self employed you should be submitting a tax return each year, regardless of whether you earn over the tax threshold or not. Only exception is if HMRC have told you not to.
Thanks.
I know that im correct and the arrogant t*ats at the council are just trying to screw me over and muck me around to try tricking and bullying me into paying them money which i dont owe them! :mad:
I cannot risk getting a ccj on my file though as that would have huge implications when i apply for the career that im waiting to go into,
but so if i just pay the entire money to the council tomorrow to avoid going to court on wednesday,
but then contest my liability to having owed that money/owing future money due to being a fulltime student,
how straightforward would it be to then get that money refunded back to me within a few weeks from the council once i manage to prove that i am a fulltime student??0 -
Why would a repayable loan count as 'income', when its just a loan that will have to be repaid like a creditcard?? :S
You would need to ask the DWP, they wrote the regulations.I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0
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