Hello; I was wondering if I could ask for your help in this complex situation. Basically one of our students temporarily withdrew a few years ago from his PHD. In this time he has been trying to sort out a new supervisor so he can re-register. Each year he received a letter from the council tax department stating that as a full time student he was exempt from paying council tax. Now however they are saying he actually was not exempt and are billing him for this period. However when he tried to claim benefits he was refused on the grounds he is a full time student.
What I was wondering was

· Would it be better to appeal the benefits decision or the council tax or both? I already sent the council tax department a letter quoting regulations about not abandoning, completing or being asked to leave the course but they said what was important was whether he was actively studying. I also think the fact that he has suspended for quite a few years may weaken the argument.

· It is of any relevance that he was sent letters every year stating he was exempt.

If you have any advice to give or experiences of similar situations to share I would be extremely grateful. Thank you very much for you time.

This post has been made on the basis that the student concerned has been issued with a Council Tax exemption certificate, and that the appropriate academic institution would confirm and verify that the student meets the local and statutory requirements that allow the institution to issue such a certificate:

To quote the academic term, your student is an 'intercalating student' i.e. have suspended rather than abandoned their course of study, (of course it is for the academic institution to decide whether a student has abandoned or suspended their course of study). The legislation does not allow local authority Council Tax billing department to 'go behind' and/or override and/or ignore the existence of any Council Tax exemption certificate, and if the academic institution confirms that a Ctax exemption certificate is properly issued and remains valid, then there is little a Ctax section can do, unless they have 'proof' that would outweigh the certificate and academic assurances of its validity.

CPAG have a useful section on intercalating students on their website and a link is below... See the section on case law which might offer you some thoughts on a way forward and when to make the appropriate challenges... The web page appears not to have been updated for a while, and it relates to HB/CTB in the main rather than Ctax liability (about Ctax's ability to go behind and override an exemption certificate)... But it might prove a helpful starting point...

http://www.cpag.org.uk/cro/wrb/wrb156/students.htm

It is - just - possible for a student to be exempt from Council Tax and yet still be only a part-time student and therefore qualify for means tested benefits. This is because the full time / part time threshold for council tax liability is slightly different to benefit limits. (from memory something to do with study hours and guided learning hours).

Anyway I did have a case where a student who had an exemption certificate tried to claim housing benefit. Not surprisingly the LA would have none of it and we went to tribunal and won - because as well as the CT cert he also had proof which made him a P/T student for benefit purposes.