Advisory: Council Tax Reductions = Public Funds

Transpondia has just posted a new advisory on his FB.

Council Tax reductions (Students getting single person discount, etc) now count as public funds: "Migrants subject to immigration control and prohibited from claiming public funds will be ineligible for a council tax reduction under a council tax reduction scheme as they were for council tax benefit."

I don't understand it at all... sounds a bit like scaremongering. I am a student but my partner is the UK citizen who gets 25% off. Do I need to do anything?

Read it for yourself:



If the reduction is just for your spouse and not for you there is nothing to worry about.

I don't understand it at all... sounds a bit like scaremongering. I am a student but my partner is the UK citizen who gets 25% off. Do I need to do anything?

If you move in with your partner, he should lose the 25% discount anyway, as it is for single occupants.

If you move in with your partner, he should lose the 25% discount anyway, as it is for single occupants.

No because I'm a student, which means I get disregarded for council tax so it's as if there is only 1 person living here... I'm a guy btw. When both of us were students we paid nothing.

If you move in with your partner, he should lose the 25% discount anyway, as it is for single occupants.

But full-time students don't pay council tax anyway as they don't count as adults for council tax purposes, so if zero is a student, then his partner is considered to be a 'single occupant' in the house and should get the 25% discount.

From the gov.uk website (https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/council-tax-exemptions):

Council Tax exemptions

A full Council Tax bill is based on at least 2 adults living in a home.

If you count as an adult for Council Tax and live on your own, you’ll get 25% off your bill.

You’ll also get a discount if you live with people who don’t count as adults for Council Tax.

Who doesn’t count?

These people are not counted as adults for Council Tax:

-    children under 18
-    people on apprentice schemes
-    18 and 19-year-olds in full-time education
-    full-time college and university students
-    young people under 25 who get funding from the Skills Funding Agency or Young People’s Learning Agency
-    student nurses
-    foreign language assistants registered with the British Council
-    people with a severe mental disability
-    live-in carers who look after someone who isn’t their partner, spouse or child
    diplomats

To work out if you should get a Council Tax discount:

-    Count the number of adults who live in your home as their main home.

-    Discount anyone in the list above.

 -   If you’re left with 1 person who counts as an adult, your Council Tax bill will be reduced by 25%.

-    If this is your main home and you’re left with no-one who counts as an adult, your bill will be reduced by 50% - second homes and empty properties have different rules.

Ah right. Very sorry!

Transpondia has just posted a new advisory on his FB.

Council Tax reductions (Students getting single person discount, etc) now count as public funds: "Migrants subject to immigration control and prohibited from claiming public funds will be ineligible for a council tax reduction under a council tax reduction scheme as they were for council tax benefit."

Actually, Council Tax Reduction (which replaces Council Tax Benefit) has nothing to do with the separate rules providing a 25% discount or exemption from Council Tax to students among others.

The official list of public funds includes only Council Tax Benefit and Council Tax Reduction. It does not mention Council Tax discounts and exemptions. So students receiving a discount should have nothing to worry about.

This is my own opinion and I welcome debate with others who reach a different conclusion based on the sources linked above.