Council Tax over Summer

The_MoneySavingKid

My mother has recently declared her separation with my father to the council, I believe so she can pay a lower rate.

Would me coming back home over the summer affect this, or am I still somehow classed as a student?

agrinnall

How can we tell, you haven't told us whether you are returning home having completed your course, or if you will be resuming your studies after the summer?

fishybusiness

My partner and I are HE students so we are exempt from paying council tax like yourself.

The exemption form we receive from university has the term time dates printed on it.

Our local council consider those dates important, and give us our exemption between those dates. During the summer we apply for council tax benefit, which means we are liable for council tax.

So I am assuming that you will be liable in your own right, and so it may make a difference to your mothers bill.

CIS

Our local council consider those dates important, and give us our exemption between those dates. During the summer we apply for council tax benefit, which means we are liable for council tax.

If you are ongoing students on the same course then your Class N student exemption from council tax applies throughout any holidays - it applies from the start date of the course to the end date (as specified in law)- and you shouldn't be claiming or receiving any council tax benefit.

Fire_Fox

The_MoneySavingKid wrote: »

My mother has recently declared her separation with my father to the council, I believe so she can pay a lower rate.

Would me coming back home over the summer affect this, or am I still somehow classed as a student?

You might be best asking the council themselves if they consider you to be a resident and need to go on the council tax bill, if you do get another copy of your exemption certificate from your university and supply that.

fishybusiness

If you are ongoing students on the same course then your Class N student exemption from council tax applies throughout any holidays - it applies from the start date of the course to the end date (as specified in law)- and you shouldn't be claiming or receiving any council tax benefit.

Ah yes, I had a look back through the paperwork from last summer, we were given full HB and no mention of CTB.

Apologies, I was thinking about the year I had out due to illness, the CTB was reinstated for that year.

CIS

Apologies, I was thinking about the year I had out due to illness, the CTB was reinstated for that year.

As an aside - if this was only a temporary suspension of the course and you remained registered as a student then you were also entitled to the disregard during this period (and exemption if you were both students).

fishybusiness

As an aside - if this was only a temporary suspension of the course and you remained registered as a student then you were also entitled to the disregard during this period (and exemption if you were both students).

Yes, it was meant to be temporary, intercalation from the university point of view. It didn't work out that way as ESA wouldn't pay me due to their view I was a student, and Student Finance wouldn't pay me as I had suspended studies.

Pulled out of study in November, told the council, CT and CTB then introduced by the council, and much debate over who was actually responsible for my welfare, and what intercalation truly meant. Had to re register at uni to resume study, even though I was still on their books, and after much trouble, the following July SFE paid me the years money they had stopped earlier in the year.

Very much a grey area as to interpretation of suspended study.

CIS

Yes, it was meant to be temporary, intercalation from the university point of view. It

In which case you were still a full time student for council tax purposes and entitled to the appropriate disregard / exemptions.

fishybusiness

In which case you were still a full time student for council tax purposes and entitled to the appropriate disregard / exemptions.

Yup, I understand that thanks.

What I was trying to say has been quite well demonstrated, in that you have your view, and application of rules to a situation, as do the ESA assessors, which is a different view, based on point of law defining a continuing student v withdrawn student, and university have a system designed to either withdraw or intercalate students, but actually their intercalation requires re registration at next years intake.

That requirement for re registration defines a grey area in that no one can say definitively if a student has withdrawn or has suspended studies, hence students can fall through all of the welfare and SFE catching systems.

I had a long talk with an ESA assessor regarding the rules, and he wasn't sure either, but stuck to his guns of no valid claim.

V_Chic_Chick

Seeing as the OP is a regular student, then all this talk of withdrawn students and ESA is something of a tangent.

So long as the OP has not finished one course and not started another (e.g. between A Levels and uni, or BA and MA) then they are still counted as a student for council tax purposes.