Council Tax Discount and Open University

johannamse

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience of gettinh a discount off their CT when studying with the OU?

loveboat1234

The Open university is considered as Part Time studies and therefor no Council Tax discount available .

Bear in mind that if you live on your own you should get 25% off you Council Tax.

Hope this helps.

Franco

johannamse

I know that most people who do the OU do a 60pt (whiich is only half a normal uni year) course a year, but what if you are actually doing it full time? this does not seem fair?!

Pound

Open University courses do still count as long as they're being studied full time, and full time is classed as 21 hours or more. So you could study 90 credits and be exempt from council tax.

This is according to http://www.newham.gov.uk/Services/CouncilTax/AboutUs/Moneyoffstudnetsandyoungpeople.htm

(Sorry to bump an old thread, found this in a Google search so though I would answer the question for anyone else that wants to know)

CIS

The OU courses don't always count as they are distance learning - I do OU course and work in Council Tax - it was one of the first things I checked out.

The official stance is that local council's can decide if they wish to accept them as students or not - http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.local.communities.gov.uk%2Ffinance%2Fctax%2Fctil%2Fctil13.pdf&ei=8O-ySNfFA5yS1wbswLB3&usg=AFQjCNEdcEJ8UPfVj4LfTH0OHVqkuq28Yw&sig2=ncVGZbBjAjX_X4VvnuT9XA

Pound

In my interpretation that website is emphasising that local authorities should be considering whether a course descibed as 'part time' by OU meets the requirement of full time and presumably visa-versa.
It does state that being an OU or distant learning student in itself isn't a reason for someone not to be exempt from council tax.
Of course I'm no expect on this but from that website it still seems to me that someone studying towards an undergraduate degree full time (ie. 120 credits) would qualify for council tax exemption.

hodgester

Pound wrote: »

In my interpretation that website is emphasising that local authorities should be considering whether a course descibed as 'part time' by OU meets the requirement of full time and presumably visa-versa.
It does state that being an OU or distant learning student in itself isn't a reason for someone not to be exempt from council tax.
Of course I'm no expect on this but from that website it still seems to me that someone studying towards an undergraduate degree full time (ie. 120 credits) would qualify for council tax exemption.

very true, the law also says that attendance means attending the educational establishment 'or otherwise'

the 'or otherwise' bit allows for distance learning, meaning OU courses are as avalid as the next.

whoops just read the pdf file.