In Council Tax law, ‘student’ means full-time student. You must be enrolled with a ‘prescribed educational establishment’ and your course must be one of the following:
- a course which lasts at least one academic or calendar year and which requires you to undertake at least 21 hours per week of study, tuition or work experience, for at least 24 weeks in the academic or calendar year, or
- a course which is not higher education, which lasts for more than 3 calendar months and requires you to undertake more than 12 hours of study. (Please note: you must be under 20 if you are on this type of course).
An exemption from Council Tax can be granted if all the people living in a property are full-time students. If there is one person who is not a student, only a 25% discount can be granted. If there are two people who are not students, no discount can be granted at all.
Where a full-time student has a spouse who is not a student but is a non-British citizen with a visa, if the terms of that visa prevent the spouse from taking paid employment or claiming benefits, an exemption will still apply (as long as all the other residents are full-time students).
To apply for either the discount or exemption, use the online claim form under Do it online / Apply on the right , or download the claim form below.
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