Hi. Can anyone help with this? I have clients, both retired. He is studying for a masters degree through the Open University. He has to study for between 21 hours per week for 24 or more weeks. Does this qualify him for the 25% discount on Council Tax, or will the fact that it is the OU affect this? Pointers to relevent legislation would be appreciated! Thank you.

In the absence of any other reply, my guess would be that it doesn't qualify him for a discount. A student qualifies for a discount if they are undertaking a full-time course of education at a "prescribed educational establishment".

I'm certain that the OU is not an "educational establishment" - in particular, part of the definition of a "full-time course of education" is that a person undertaking it is normally required by the establishment in question to attend, at the establishment's premises or elsewhere, for periods of at least 24 weeks in each academic year.

Which is not the case for the OU.....

I dont think I would agree with Bob about the OU not being an educational establishment, but he is right about the issue of attendance.

OU students typicall do not have to attend classes, with the possible exception of summer schools. Study is in the main by correspondence

Hi. Thanks for replies. Any pointers towards legislation?

The Primary Legislation is Sh 1 Para 4 Local Govt Finnance Act 1992.

Other Relevant pieces of legislation are The Councuil Tax (Discount Disregards) order 1992 No 558 as amended by 1994 No 543

This rang a bell with me as I had come across something similar several years ago.
Also not sure if this has not been superceded. It comes from a council tax information letter dated 11 Nov 1999
http://www.local.dtlr.gov.uk/finance/ctax/ctil/ctil19.pdf

Attendance criteria for students
To qualify as a student for council tax purposes, a person must be undertaking a full time
course of education at a prescribed educational establishment. A full-time course of
education is defined as one which normally requires on average at least 21 hours of study
a week and 24 weeks of attendance each year (whether at premises of the establishment or
otherwise).
At present, because of the requirement to attend, students who choose to undertake fulltime
study from home, rather than attend elsewhere, may not qualify for a discount
disregard or exemption, even if they meet the other criteria. Furthermore, they may be
treated as full-time students for benefits purposes because, although the benefits
regulations refer to “attend”, we understand from DSS that for benefit purposes a person is
deemed to be attending a course if they are undertaking a course.
We are currently reviewing whether the attendance criterion remains justified for council
tax purposes, particularly in view of the Government’s commitment to lifelong learning.
There are many reasons, such as family commitments, why someone who wishes to study
full-time for a degree may, where the rules of the relevant educational institution permit,
wish to do so from home rather than move to a university. Furthermore, technical
innovations have made studying full-time from home for university degrees more
accessible than when the council tax was introduced. Before we decide to amend the
regulations, however, we need to satisfy ourselves that we are not creating additional
problems, for example, by encouraging enrolment on correspondence courses purely in
order to be exempt from council tax. On this latter point, in view of the cost of courses,
this may be unlikely.