Student and non-working wife Council tax benefit advice, please :-)

bluejmc2005

Hi all,

This has been bugging me for so long now. I am a full time university student, in my third year now and starting a PGCE course to become an RE teacher in september. We claim housing benefit. As a student, if I lived alone I would pay nothing. My wife, who is a stay at home mum of my now 2 year old daughter (pregnant too but I dont think thats relelvent) would certainly be entitled to full benefit if she were alone. During the summer months (july and auguest, when my student loan is not taken as income) I am able to claim JSA and we receive full entitlement. But, during term time,we receive opnly some benefit (around 1/3rd of the annual bill)

Is this just tough-luck? or am i missing something? It just seems grossly unfair that friends of mine who have no responsibilites pay nothing - completely regardless of income, while we have only my student loan and some child tax credit/child benefit to live on - my wife cannot and does not claim any other benefits - and we have to pay?

any help/advice/having a go at me for moaning is welcomed!

Jason

alison999

lol @ have a go.... can your wife not claim job seekers for while? is she noticably pregnant? if she is (i know this sounds awful) but not a lot of people will employ her if she is. also, if she paid a certain amount of tax within a certain period would she be entitled to maternity pay?

bluejmc2005

could work as a short-term fix I guess. I have been readin this site:-

http://www.luuonline.com/help/money/counciltaxquestions.php

and to me, it reads like from april 2004 i should not have been liable, so we should pay nothing as only her income should count?

Oldernotwiser

bluejmc2005 wrote: »

Hi all,

As a student, if I lived alone I would pay nothing.

Jason

I'm not sure what you mean by this; as a single student you'd have to pay rent out of your loan. Don't you get the maintenance grant?

bluejmc2005

I'm not talking about rent, i am talking about council tax

Nicifer_noonoo

I think because in their eyes you have a potential worker out of the two of you, you'd still have to pay some of it.

I'm a full time student, pregnant and live alone, and have been told that during the summer holidays, I'll have to pay 75% of my council tax for those three months - 25% discount for living alone, nothing for being pregnant and unable to work!

bluejmc2005

Nicifer_noonoo wrote: »

I think because in their eyes you have a potential worker out of the two of you, you'd still have to pay some of it.

I'm a full time student, pregnant and live alone, and have been told that during the summer holidays, I'll have to pay 75% of my council tax for those three months - 25% discount for living alone, nothing for being pregnant and unable to work!

no student has to pay any council tax, even if they have 2 million pounds in the bank. if you live alone and are a student full time, you should receive 100% discount while at university and then in the summer months if you are not working tyou would receive 100% discount, surely? maybe even not liable still, freinds of mine have not paid any council tax since starting uni

Oldernotwiser

bluejmc2005 wrote: »

I'm not talking about rent, i am talking about council tax

You asked for advice on Housing Benefit; it's in the thread title!

bluejmc2005

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You asked for advice on Housing Benefit; it's in the thread title!

Oh dear sorry my fault! I'll see if i can change it. My sincere apologies

Oldernotwiser

bluejmc2005 wrote: »

Oh dear sorry my fault! I'll see if i can change it. My sincere apologies

Don't worry about it, I'm just pointing out the reason I answered in this way!

clairec79

I agree it sucks, we were in the same situation, we got 25% discount for me being a student and even though dh wasn't working (was at home looking after the 3 kids and caring for his terminally ill grandmother) we didn[t get a discount for him and they said as a family we had enough to pay the remainder of the amount