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

Wicked_witch

As blumjc has already said, the majority of the grant/loan is counted as family income, just as the wages if only one of you had a job would be counted jointly. I have my doubts about the fairness of this, since the loan will have to be paid back and the council will not refund backdated benefits once you have paid it back, lol.

On the other hand, if you were a single student living in uni accomodation or a rented room during your course, just about all of the loan and grant would go on rent and you'd have to get a job as well in order to eat, buy clothes etc as you wouldn't be entitled to any benefits. The idea is that we students go without now in order to get higher paid, higher status jobs in a few years, so grit your teeth and imagine the porsche you'll own in 10 years time ;-)

Wicked_witch

Also, it's worth pointing out that taxpayers already hugely subsidise higher education (we may pay around £3000 a year in fees, but the true cost, as paid by international students, is closer to £15,000 a year) and they would probably get very irate if they had to pay extra council tax and subsidise rent on our behalf as well.

Thought I would get that in before someone else puts it far less nicely :-)

bluejmc2005

Wicked_witch wrote: »

Also, it's worth pointing out that taxpayers already hugely subsidise higher education (we may pay around £3000 a year in fees, but the true cost, as paid by international students, is closer to £15,000 a year) and they would probably get very irate if they had to pay extra council tax and subsidise rent on our behalf as well.

Thought I would get that in before someone else puts it far less nicely :-)

I see what you are saying (and I might add I feel I could offer a compelling argument to those tax payers you talk of - but now is not the time!) but the fact remains that the rules being as they currently are, it is not "fair" that if "a" and "b" alone pay nothing individually, why should they pay combined with no extra income? anyway them's the breaks, and I can forget the porsche as teachers don't earn that much!