Council Tax single person discount removed. Single Parent - Child in F/T education abroad

creditpunch

Hi 

Can anyone help me understand my situation as my council is being very unhelpful. I'm a single parent and my only child is now 19, I have been receiving the Council tax single person discount for over 16 years+, as it's only been myself and child in our home.

My child has now gone on to study a F/T degree in another country since 18yo (2023) and should be finished when 21yo. I've explained this to the council, my child barely comes home in the holidays due to extra curricular and costs of flights (e.g. in 2023 my child was home for 8 weeks total). My council has removed my single person discount even though I am very much alone in the house! and they backdated to Aug 2023 putting me in arrears of ~£700+ overnight. 

I've sent proof of admission, the course, the hours, the start and projected end date etc. This is my child's main address outside university and I can't imagine a dormitory on campus for a semester constitutes as a main address!

Can someone explain why this should be the case? I was the one who started the inquiry with them in the first place to make sure I was above board, i could've left it alone, but i feel they're treating me like I'm being fraudulent or something.

thanks in advance
CP

Voyager2002

Once your child is over 18, the discount could only continue if (a) s/he leaves home; or (b) s/he is deemed to be a student. Evidently you have gone for option (b), although from what you say about the time spent abroad you might be able to argue successfully that s/he has left home.

Councils have a fairly restrictive definition of what constitutes a student, and require a narrow range of documents to support this. Probably a foreign university would not satisfy this definition and would be unable to provide the documentation they require.

Anyway, my immediate suggestion is that you make contact with an elected councillor to ask for help.

molerat

If they are studying in an EU country I believe they are still considered a student and should be disregarded, if non  EU then they will not be disregarded on student grounds.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/548/schedule/2

creditpunch

Thank you this is helpful, my child's uni is outside the EU so I guess I'm at the mercy of the council. Strange that I can't benefit from £500 reduction that other households do when my household uses services, in terms of bin collections, policing etc, much less than most other households probably.  Because my zero income child is barely home for 8 weeks in the year and is still a dependant as other full time students would be to their parents, moreso in many regards.