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Students with Foreign Spouse/Partner/Dependent

You may be entitled to a Council Tax discount if a resident in the property is a student and their foreign spouse, partner and/or dependent(s) are also resident.

If you are a full time student for Council Tax purposes and your spouse, partner and/or dependent(s) live with you, and are not British citizens, you may be entitled to a Council Tax discount or, depending on who is resident in the property, a Council Tax exemption.

Qualifying Full Time Students

To qualify as a full time student for Council Tax purposes, the student must be enrolled with a specified educational establishment on a specified course for which:

  • Periods of study, work experience or tuition amount to at least 24 weeks in each academic year, and
  • The required periods of study, work experience or tuition amount to an average of at least 21 hours each week.

Qualifying Spouses, Partner or Dependent(s)

To qualify the spouse, partner and/or dependent of the student:

  • Are not be a British citizen, and
  • Under the terms of their "leave to enter" or "leave to remain" in the United Kingdom they are prevented from taking paid employment or claiming benefits.

A spouse, partner or dependent(s) who will therefore have a 'no recourse to public funds' condition or a 'prohibition on employment' stamped in their passport or detailed on their biometric residence permit (BRP)

 

How to apply:

To complete the application, you will need:

  • The details of the person liable to pay Council Tax.
  • Details of all other residents in the property (aged 16 or over).
  • A digital copy of your student certificate provided by your educational establishment (university, college, etc.) which you will be able to upload as part of the application process, and
  • A digital copy of the passport or biometric residence permit of each spouse, partner and/or dependent who is over 18 years of age.

Student Certificates:

By law, educational establishments must provide the student with a certificate for Council Tax purposes, free of charge, on request. Where a request is made more than one year after the student ceased to follow a course of education the request may be refused.

A student certificate must include:

  • The name and address of the educational establishment.
  • The full name of the student.
  • The student's date of birth.
  • The student's home address, and where different, the term time address.
  • A statement certifying that the student is (or has) followed a qualifying course of education at the establishment.
  • The start and end date (or expected end date) of the course

Note: If you are a student at West Lothian College you do not need to provide a student certificate as the college will provide us with this information.

Once you have this information make your application for a Council Tax discount.