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Bedroom tax, students and council tax single persons discount
Don’t know if anyone can clear this up for me.
A client of mine has three bedrooms. She is self-employed and gets partial housing benefit. She has two children one of whom is at school and the other is a student living elsewhere during term time. The student returns at holidays etc. The client has said to HB/CTB that the student is not living there so she gets 25% council tax discount, however, as she has three bedrooms she would now be subject to 14% reduction in HB if she says she only has one child living with her.
I am aware that under the present housing benefit rules for Bedroom tax purposes a student can count as living at an address as long as they are not away for longer than 52 weeks. However, if my client says that the student lives with her will she lose her 25% council tax discount completely or would she only lose this for the time the student is actually living with her?
I hope this makes sense
Hi there, regardless of all the new changes a student, living away from home, always count as resident at their main home. In your case your client can’t have it both ways, it’s either the student is no longer resident or has always been resident even though studying away from home.
Where the student’s main and sole residence is, is a matter of fact. As your client has stated the student is no longer resident then she turn around and say she is now resident because of the bedroom tax.
I hope I make sense. On the one had the LA may believe her, if she changes the facts and states the student has actually always been resident and only studies away from home, on the other hand they don’t and status quo remains as is.
Either she loses the 25% discount right from the start and gets the extra room or she doesn’t get the extra room and gets the discount.
A student is an invisible person disregarded for the purpose of CT discount, so as far as your client’s personal situation in this dwelling is concerned it makes no difference on the Council Tax side whether the student lives there or not. If the only variable is the HB bedroom tax, then clearly it is better that s/he persuades the Council to view the student as an “occupier”.
However, there is another aspect to consider:
- your client’s son/daughter’s student status is probably driving some kind of discount or exemption in respect of the term time address. Is there a risk it could be lost if the two Councils decide the student is not resident there? I am struggling to pin down a legal source for this, but it seems that full time students are always regarded as being resident at their term time address for Council Tax purposes, in which case the term time discount/exemption would be safe.
- but then your client might find it difficult to persuade her Council that the student is an occupier for HB purposes but not a resident for CT purposes: that might strike the Council as wanting to have it all ways, so that the student doesn’t have to pay any Council Tax wherever s/he lives in term time but the mother still doesn’t have to pay any bedroom tax either.
It’s not impossible: the concept of “occupier” for HB and “resident” for CT are legally separate and it does seem that there might be some kind of legal fiction that treats a student as resident in a term time address even if that is clearly not the case in reality (be handy if someone could cite it - as I say I cannot trace it). The natural conclusion from the facts of your case may well be that the student occupies the client’s home and therefore there is no bedroom tax.
There are a couple of UT decisions on HB size criteria which confirm that a student who is only at home in the holidays can still be an occupier on the parent’s HB claim, but they have ignored or glossed over the possible conflict with CT resident status
Either she loses the 25% discount right from the start and gets the extra room or she doesn’t get the extra room and gets the discount.
Oh my bad!!
Sorry, forgot about the student discount, otherwise, agree with Tony and HB Anorak.. in your case I think the thing to worry about is “where the student’s main residence is” [What will the LA/s believe]....Digs or mum’s home? And will the LA/s accept this?
My bad for gravedigging I know but I needed to look the statutory mechanism up today.
Am I right in thinking it’s reg 7(16)(viii) that holds an FT Student as continuing to occupy their family home whilst at uni? The construction of reg 7 is a bit muddy and it’s effectively monday morning so not the best time to try and deconstruct it.
That Reg sets a limit of 52 weeks on the student’s absence from the normal home, which is more generous than the default 13 weeks which applies to absence in general, but the question whether the home from which the student is absent remains his/her long term underlying normal home is more subjective.
Some local authorities have rule-of-thumb approaches such as:
- if the student is is in college halls, that is clearly only a temporary arrangement so they still have their normal home with their parents; whereas if they rent privately that will tend to indicate they have moved out of their parents’ home and so they now actually live in the rented accommodation and temporarily leave it to visit their parents during college vacations
- if the student has a tenancy that will last beyond the current academic year, that suggests that his/her home base has now shifted to become the rented accommodation, whereas if they never commit themselves to a tenancy that lasts longer than the end of the current college year they still really live at home with their parents
Neither of these is 100% accurate, but as a rough guide for making a “quick and dirty” decision they have their merits, with more detailed investigation taking place if the claimant queries the decision.
I never did establish whether there is a provision in Council Tax legislation that deems a student to be resident for CT purposes at the address where s/he stays in term time even if in reality s/he still regards himself/herself as living at home with parents. Will have a look and report back
Ooops - double post, sorry