Reduce your Council Tax

You could be exempt from paying council tax if:

• you're a full time student living in a property on your own
• you're a full time student living in a property solely with other full time students

You could be entitled to a 25% discount on your council tax if:

• all residents are full time students except one other adult who is not a student.
• if two or more non-students occupy a property then there is no reduction.

In most cases, it's the people who are non-students that are liable to pay the council tax.

If any of the following circumstances apply to you, a member of your household or your property then you may able to claim a discount or exemption.

Full time students attending college or university

To qualify you must be undertaking a full-time or qualifying course at a Prescribed Educational Establishment. A full-time course is one:

• which lasts for at least one academic year at the educational establishment concerned
• where attendance is required for periods of at least 24 weeks in the academic year; and
• which involves at least 21 hours a week during term time for periods of study, tuition, work experience or a combination of these.

A qualifying course is one:

• where the person undertaking it is under 20 years of age
• the course lasts for more than 3 months; is more than 12 hours per week; is not a course of higher education or a correspondence course and is not undertaken as a consequence of employment (I.e. day release)
• attendance must be between 8.00am and 5.30pm

For all other educational establishments we will need to see your student certificate when you apply for a discount or an exemption.

Student nurses

Nursing and midwifery students, including those on pre-registration undergraduate courses and post-registration health visitor training, count as students. For discount purposes a student nurse means a person undertaking a course which if successfully completed, would lead to registration under the Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Act 1997.  Student nurses taking traditional hospital based training do not count as students.

PHD Students

PHD students are exempt from Council Tax; but not for an open ended period, if they meet the criteria of a full-time student.

Foreign language assistants

To qualify you must be registered with the Central Bureau for educational visits and exchanges; and appointed in a school or other educational institution in the UK.

We will need to see the appropriate student certificate or Central Bureau registration certificate when you apply for a discount or exemption.

School and college leavers under the age of 20

An 18 or 19 year old that has left school or college after 30 April will not be included until 1 November of the same year.

To qualify, the education course must not have been any higher than A level or equivalent. If they go on to further or higher education they may continue to be eligible for a discount.

Student halls of residence

Halls of residence are exempt if they are occupied by students and owned and managed by an educational establishment.

A property left unoccupied by a student owner

Properties left unoccupied by a student owner may be exempt from paying council tax.

Please note: the following are not classed as students and are therefore liable for council tax:

• people studying at evening classes or
• courses taken in connection with a person's job, such as day release.

Apply for a Student Discount 

Print off the  Application form (PDF, 40 KB), fill it in and return it to us:

Email it to us at council.tax@torridge.gov.uk

Post it to - Torridge District Council, Riverbank House, Bideford, Devon, EX39 2QG

Can't print the form? Call us on 01237 428900 and we'll send you one.

After you have applied for the discount:

You must continue to pay the instalments shown on your Council Tax bill until you hear from us.

We periodically check accounts that have been granted discounts and exemptions.  If we contact you to review your discount and we don't hear back from you, we will cancel it.

You must tell us if there is a change in your circumstances that may affect your discount. If you don't tell us you may have to pay a penalty.