Council Tax

Every domestic property is placed in one of 8 valuation bands designated by the letters A to H. The lowest band is A and the highest is H. Council Tax is charged in varying amounts according to the band your property falls into.

Depending on certain criteria you may be entitled to one or more of the following relief's from Council Tax:

• Complete Exemption
• Discount Disregard

The basic Council Tax bill assumes that there are two people over the age of 18 living in a property. If you live alone you are entitled to a 25% discount.

Also, some people are not counted for Council Tax purposes. This may mean that the person who pays the Council Tax for your home can claim a discount.

If everyone living in your home is either not counted or under the age of 18, the person who pays the Council Tax is entitled to a 50% discount or in some cases, an exemption.

Exemptions and Discount Disregard

The person who would be required to pay Council Tax for a property may be entitled to an exemption if:

• it is a hall of residence
• it is the former home of a full-time student
• it is only occupied by people who are classed as full-time students
• it is only occupied by full-time students and people who suffer from a severe mental impairment
• it is only occupied by someone who suffers from such an impairment and a full-time student owns it,
• only people under the age of 18 occupy it

Halls of Residence

To qualify for exemption the hall of residence must be predominately occupied by full-time students and owned or run by a college, a university or charitable institution. If you are a student living in a hall of residence you do not need to do anything yourself because the organisation running the residence will claim the exemption.

The former home of a full-time student

If you are a full-time student who has left a property you own to study, the property may be exempt, if

• it was your main residence immediately before you became a full-time student
• you vacated it less than six weeks before starting your course, and
• No-one has occupied it as his or her main home since your course even if you do not move back into your former home.

To claim this exemption you must complete an application form and send us proof of your student status.

Properties occupied only by students

If the property you live in is only occupied by a combination of the following groups of people: full-time students, the spouses or dependents of students from abroad, school leavers, students on a qualifying course or foreign language assistants, it is exempt from Council Tax.

To claim this exemption, all students must send us proof of their student status If not all of you have supplied us with their certificates then we will continue to hold you all liable for Council Tax until the certificates are supplied.

Qualifying Criteria

You are considered to be a full-time student if;

• you are studying at an educational establishment providing either higher or further education, this includes institution outside the UK or the Open University
• you are required to study, receive tuition or undertake work experience for at least 21 hours per week on average and
• your course lasts for at least a calendar year or an academic year of at least 24 weeks

Unless you are a trainee teacher any period of work experience you undertake must not exceed 50% of the whole time spent on your course.

To be disregarded for Council Tax purposes or to claim an exemption, you must submit a certificate from your college or university. The certificate is available from the registration office of your college or university.
The certificate should confirm your name and student identification number, the name of the course you are undertaking, the number of hours you study each week and, the start and cease date of your course. The certificate should be an original and be stamped by the educational establishment.

You should provide a contact telephone number so we may get in touch with you quickly if we have any queries.

Student nurses

A student nurse is someone who is doing a course which when completed, will lead to registration on any parts 1 to 6,8,10,or 11 maintained under Section 10 of Midwives, and Health Visitors Act 1979, as a first inclusion on that register.

To claim this discount or exemption, you must complete an application form and send us proof of your student status.

Spouses of dependents of students from abroad

If you are the spouse or a dependant of a student from another country you may also be treated as a full-time student. The terms of the visa allowing you to live in this country must state that you are not entitled to work or have access to public funds (only one of these conditions needs to apply).

To be disregarded (or not counted) for Council Tax purposes, you must complete an application from and send us proof of your student status with a copy of the appropriate age of your passport.

School Leavers

You are considered to be a school leaver if you are under the age of 20 and have left school or college between 30 April and 1 November of the current year. Note that you will be treated as a school leaver for Council tax purposes even if you do not eventually enrol on a course.

To claim this discount or exemption, you must complete an application form and send us proof of your student status.

Students under 20 on qualifying courses

You can be considered to be a student on a qualifying course if;

• you are under the age of 20
• the number of hours you are required to study exceeds 12
• your course lasts for at least 3 calendar months
• most of the tuition is undertaken between the hours of 8.00am and 5.30pm
• the course is not a correspondence course and
• the course is not undertaken in relation to any job that you do

To claim this discount or exemption, you must complete an application from and send us proof of your student status.

Foreign language assistants

To qualify as a Foreign Language Assistant you must be registered with the British Council.

To be disregarded for Council Tax purposes, you must complete an application form and send proof that are registered with the British Council and that you have been appointed as a foreign language assistant by a school, college or university.

Youth training trainees

You must be under the age of 25 and undergoing training through arrangements made under the Employment Training Act 1973 which is approved under section 29 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992. This training must be funded by the Learning and Skills Council.

To be disregarded for Council Tax purposes, you must complete an application form.

• For Foreign Language Assistants, Student Nurses and Students on Full Time or Qualifying courses, applications can be made on line by completing the form at Council Tax Full Time students web page. For all other disregards you will need to contact the Council Tax and Benefit Service on 020 8430 2000.
• If possible you should send us your original student certificate obtained from your educational establishment as proof of your student status. However, if you do not have this for any reason, you should not delay in returning the completed application form. We will endeavour to contact your college or university on your behalf for verification of your student status.
• Alternatively you may wish to contact the Council Tax and Benefits Services Contact Centre on 020 8430 2000 or email: counciltax@newham.gov.uk.

Please note that as part of Newham's policy to ensure that we have an accurate record of the students that live in the borough, we will be checking whether your course as well as the college/university you attend is bone fide. We shall also verify your attendance with your place of study.

Want to check your college/university is registered as a recognised educational establishment before applying for student status? Please check their details on the web address below:-

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/providersregister/index.cfm

The website below can be used to check the degree course you are undertaking to ensure that it is a genuine course of education:-

www.dfes.gov.uk/recognisedukdegrees