For the purposes of discount disregards and for exemption Class K ,Class M and Class N only students falling under the following criteria can be disregarded.
A person is classified as a Foreign Language Assistant if they are registered with the British Council as a Foreign Language Assistant and they are appointed to a school or other prescribed educational establishment
The Officer should ensure prior to granting any disregard that evidence is received which can confirm registration and appointment.
The Council will require a certificate of student status from the educational establishment to support the claim
A person will be disregarded if they are a full time student as defined by the following:
Attending a prescribed educational establishment (from 13th May 2011 - the legislation has changed to undertaking rather than attending) and prescribed educational establishments include Universities on the ERASMUS programme within the European Union
Undertakes a course of at least one academic or calendar year
The course normally requires the student to attend for at least 24 weeks each year and for at least 21 hours per week (this included attendance, tuition, study or work experience)
Please note that where a person undertakes work experience, it is a requirement that the period of work experience does not exceed 50% of the total course time except in the case of student teachers who are exempt from these rules.
A student is considered to be undertaking a course from the first day of the course to the last day of the course notwithstanding periods of vacation. Care should be taken when assessing disregarded status where a student has ceased a course and is to undertake another – during the interim period, the person is not considered to be a student.
Where a student does not undertake the course due to illness, they can still be considered eligible for disregard until such time as the student is removed from the course or they are deemed to have abandoned the course.
Open University courses, subject to meeting the criteria would be considered as full time courses. Likewise Project 2000 nurses are regarded to be a student for the purposes of these provisions.
In the above case the officer will be required to clearly establish the student status and receive evidence in writing of all relevant information.
The Authority retains the power to request certificates from the educational establishment and where the student is unable to provide any other detail it is a requirement that a certificate is provided by the student prior to granting of any disregard in all cases.
Certificates cannot be obtained in respect of EU Universities so the following information will be required;
Copies of acceptance on course
Enrolment details & key details of course
Payment for course
Contact details etc
A person can be disregarded if the following criteria are met in full:
aged under 20
not undertaking a full time course of education
undertakes more than 12 hours of study per week
the course is for more than 3 calendar months
the course is not one of higher education
the course is otherwise than correspondence
the course is not undertaken as part of a persons employment (day release etc.)
the course is normally carried out during 8.00am to 5.30pm
the time criteria must consist of tuition, supervised study, exercise or project work.
As with all other students the officer must ensure that the criteria are met in full in order for the disregard to be granted.
Where appropriate a student certificate must be obtained unless full written evidence is provided.
Where students fall to be disregarded under the above provisions, exemption Class K ,Class M and Class N may also apply – please note that this does not apply to any other category of students listed within the disregard provisions.
The VT’s decision was quashed because it had erred in its finding that Mrs Evans was a full time student doing a qualifying course of education. Mrs Evans was undertaking an All Wales Part Time Occupational Therapy Course at the University of Wales. The High Court decided that Mrs. Evans’s course of study did not meet the qualifying criteria for the Council Tax (Discounts Disregards) Order 1992 because she was not required to attend the college for 24 weeks or more in an academic year.
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