AIBU to think uni students should pay council tax?

[alwaysreadthelabel]

I live in a uni town. We have massive areas that were non student resident housing areas but are now mainly student areas. I cannot get my head round why students don't pay council tax. They use all the same services as non student residents, admittedly not for the whole year but at least for 9 months. They use the roads, bins, libraries etc. .... why do they not have to pay council tax?

I know some will say they can't afford it but that could be said about any household bill. It really confuses me.

@CitadelsofScience
Living away from home is entering the real world, everyone knows the cost of university and still choose to go, what im saying is people on UC have to pay toward's council tax so do families on low incomes, they don't get cheap haircut's, cheap bar meal's and cheap bus travel, most people on apprenticeships still live with there parent's there on low income and dont see any concession's for them, it's also costing those parent's a lot to keep them until there fully trained, student's should live in the real world like the rest of us

Why can't you see the govenment donor include this as cost of living in the student loans, because they would be paying it just to reclaim it, like uni fees...are paid to the uni , not the student.

All those cars! In my dd's group three of them .including dd have mobility cars.
Cambridge does not allow undergrads to have cars.

Oh fuck off OP. How self righteous are you ..

Happyhillock , ‘ore like Happypillock.
You clearly don’t have kids .. and without students choosing to go to uni we’d have no doctors , nurses, teachers , scientists etc.. so letting them off a few quid council tax is the least of our worries ..

Aren’t most students in HMOs? Therefore it’s the landlords responsibility to pay council tax? Same as any HMO

YABVU and ridiculous

@Pk37 yes i do have kid's well 2 adult DD's none went to uni because they didn't want to leave with a load of debt, both did go to college and took 3 year course's, both worked part-time job's at the weekend, they both have very good high paid job's and one is the head of her department

Council tax around here is about £1200 paid over 10 months, so £120 a month. Sure it's doable for a extra shift a week in work, but it's still a crap extra bill to get when you're working a minimum wage job you hate, stressing over deadlines, working a placement for uni, living in generally poorly maintained flat shares and not eligible for any help from the council.

Families squeezed to the limit, people on zero hour contracts, that also are not eligible for any help or concessions anywhere still have to pay it.

I can see your point OP.

Families squeezed to the limit, people on zero hour contracts, that also are not eligible for any help or concessions anywhere still have to pay it.

People with a university education are likely to pay more tax in the long run than people whose prospects are limited like you describe, so maybe it's an incentive to better yourself and try to aim for a better paid job.

Ah happy and there we have it. You have children that didn't go to uni so you're not qualified to debate this I'm afraid!

My dd has no choice but to be saddled with debt it's not even really a debt because it's a requirement to the profession. 6 years training she'll do but don't worry, I will let her know what a disgraceful girl she is for not paying CT.

Totally agree. Let’s have students paying council tax, it’s only fair. It’s also only fair that they get money to live like everyone else on a low income, we want parity after all. So students can get housing benefit, tax credits (where they fulfill the eligibility requirements) and council tax benefit. Seems like a good deal for them. It doesn’t seem right that people doing bugger all get benefits when hard working students aren’t eligible. It really would make society much fairer.

yes i do have kid's well 2 adult DD's none went to uni because they didn't want to leave with a load of debt, both did go to college and took 3 year course's, both worked part-time job's at the weekend, they both have very good high paid job's and one is the head of her department

Well that’s a great blueprint for someone who aspires to be head of a generic unspecified department. Not so handy if someone wants to become an engineer, veterinarian, doctor or architect etc.

As far as i'm concerned if you a degree you have to pay for it

Ah well you don't mind if we don't have any teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers, lawyers or accountants then.

We NEED graduates. Therefore we should pay for their education.

And while most people need a mortgage to buy a house, I've never gone into debt to buy a car, I just buy one I can afford on my income at the time. I don't think people have to get into massive debt to do a degree.

should have to get into massive debt to get a degree

Not only do we need graduates but they already pay a huge opportunity cost to study for three plus years, namely the wages they could earn in employment. Add into that the ridiculous tuition fees and loans for living expenses and it really is quite excessive IMO. Our Western European neighbours have far more generous university funding systems. The UK only looks good compared to the USA. Not all graduates go on to be high wage earners. By the time students leave, they only have so long to work before they would ideally own a home before starting a family, well the females at least. I think students are burdened with too much debt these days.

@CitadelsofScience, the question wasn t about student's going to uni it was wether they should pay council tax, i think they should the same as other people on low income's, and if they want a degree yes they should pay for it, it's not just doctor's, dentist's and nurse's that keep the world going round.

@Barbie222. Yes life would be great if everyone had a better paid job, who would clean the public toilet's, hospital's and school's, who would serve your £30 meal in a restaurant, empty dog poo bin's, clean the street's, check out your shopping at the till,
Most of these people are on a minimum wage and love a better paid job, not as simple as that

People with a university education are likely to pay more tax in the long run than people whose prospects are limited like you describe, so maybe it's an incentive to better yourself and try to aim for a better paid job.
Wow.
I remember when people used to have to pretend they didn't see the lower orders as shit on their shoe. No pretending anymore, eh?
RE cars: a lot of students get the just add fuel deals on new cars. They are around £150 a month I think? Maybe more. This is in a town with excellent transport in student areas and trains etc.
My flat screen TV ( are there any TVs that are not flatscreen anymore ? ?)was £40 on Gumtree. I am working and can barely afford my car insurance as my street is full of crims and ex crims ( pushes the premiums up).
Now, I don't know if students should pay council tax, but it seems worth a debate, rather than the flat out incredulousness,snobbery and hand wringing that ensued.

My son was a student .And believe me there is not a lot over tbh!.Surely the whole point of living in a democracy ,is that the better off /working part of the population help the lower paid /those in Education of whom many will be our future politicians,Teachers,Doctors and so on.As far as OAPS or people on a low wage are concerned, There is a discount known as council tax benefit ,and a discount for those who live alone.Need it here as its around £1800.00 per year!(Band D property).It may seem unfair, but how can they pay anyway most of them only work p/t or have a grant to live on !

As a student this year I got £4020 my accommodation was £3800 for the year and I get no funding from parents. Where does this magical council tax money come from? The maintainence loan is based on parents pre-tax earnings. As a student who is studying outside of london I do not qualify for more. My saving grace is my partner who gets considerably more as a student in his ML and the hardship fund otherwise I would be skipping meals to make ends
Meet (which is what I did pre partner in my first year)

Most of these people are on a minimum wage and love a better paid job, not as simple as that

It's far from simple, but education is one way out of that life, and I'm all for everything that makes that a little bit easier for anyone who doesn't come from a wealthy background. I'm also not impressed with anyone who's doing down further education in general because a few students are able to afford a car. That attitude needs to be stamped the fuck out or we are just leaving our working class kids in a pool of low aspirations and expecting them to give up.

Who the fuck is doing down further (higher) education?
And how does the high level of brand new car ownership among students affect the aspirations of the working class? From what I can see the working class youth can see quite clearly that students , and clearly their parents, already feel well entitled to think of themselves as superior. .

When I was a student I had a friend on income support who had more money than me. We were both lone parents. I ended each semester with literally pennies in the bank. I couldn't have afforded council tax. I'm assuming things aren't that much better now.

OP may have gone away now.
Really though? Students doing full time courses in full time education are on extremely low income and are not entitled to benefits including council tax benefit or UC /WTC that others on low income are entitled to, because they are studying on a full time and not available to work FT.

Whilst some may come from rich families who have bought them cars and maintain them for them (tax, insurance, ) and can/do pay their rent/help, there are equally many many more students who come from poorer or very poor families.
Who , if they weren't exempt they wouldn't be able to afford it and would be a straight choice between eating or paying a tarif they can't afford - the way CT works is it goes after the one whose details.they have. It would penalise honest students from low income families - all of whom who don't have a few spare thousands tucked away. It'd increase inequality. I studied in poll tax era and that was awful and deeply inequitable.