ECDL DISTANCE LEARNING - AM I A "PROPER STUDENT"

scottishchick27

Hi, I have just started doing the European Computing Driving Licence at home. I'm registered through my local college and have a student number and student card. Am I entitled to the same benefits that full-time students get. Free prescriptions, lower council tax etc. Am currently a full time mum being supported by my fiance of 7 years and receiving no benefits.

lady_lucan

Fraid not - you need to be able to prove more than 16 hrs per week, and ECDL is already subsidised by the EU. And, since it's distance learning, no travel money. Just whatever discounts you can get on your student card really.

zodiac

Nope. But if you can, try to get a full time student NUS card as oposed to the part time one as some business dont accept the part time one.

dag_2

Free prescriptions, lower council tax etc.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this anyone, but ....

Free prescriptions are actually a means-tested benefit. You don't get it just because you're a student. Many college undergraduates qualify for it because they have no savings and income other than their student grant and/or loan - but they have to fill in the same HC1 form to get it as everyone else.

You can pick up a blank HC1 form from any Job Centre Plus, NHS hospital, or maybe your GP surgery or dentist too. Or you can ask the Prescription Pricing Authority to send you one in the post. In your case, you'll probably be assessed on your fiance's income and savings as well as your own.

Lower council tax - in many cases, full-time students are not counted as people for the purposes of council tax - and if everyone living at a given address is a qualifying full-time student, then council tax doesn't need to be paid on the address. That's not quite the same as saying that students don't pay council tax - for example, if a student tenant in self-contained accommodation takes in a non-student lodger, then the student will become liable for council tax.

However, in houses of multiple occupation, it's the landlord's responsibility to pay the council tax, not the tenant's. It doesn't make any difference whether the tenants are students or not, either way, they still won't pay council tax - and in practice, many full-time students live in this type of accommodation, because they can't afford anything better.

To sum up - studying ECDL won't make any difference. But you might have already been entitled to free prescriptions without knowing about it.