What is council tax?
Council tax is an annual fee your local council charges you for the services it provides, like rubbish collection and libraries. Normally you pay it in 10 monthly instalments, followed by two months of not making any payments.
Local services are funded by council tax. This includes:
- police and fire services
- leisure and recreation projects, such as maintaining parks and sports centres
- libraries and education services
- rubbish and waste collection and disposal
- transport and highway services, including street lighting and cleaning, and road maintenance
- environmental health and trading standards
- administration and record-keeping, such as marriages, deaths and birth, and local elections.
Council tax bands
Each property is assigned a council tax band and the amount of council tax charged depends on your band.
Discounts for students
Households where everyone’s a full- time student do not have to pay council tax. If you do get a bill, you can apply for an exemption.
To count as a full-time student, your course must:
- last at least 1 year
- involve at least 21 hours study per week
You’ll get a council tax bill if there’s someone in your household who’s not a full-time student, but your household might still qualify for a discount.
Halls of Residence do not have to pay council tax if they are occupied by students and owned and managed by an educational establishment.
Applying for a council tax discount
Before you apply for a council tax discount, you need to find out your local council and its website.
You then need to register with your local council by creating an account on their website.
Once your account is set up, you need to generate a council tax exemption letter that states the dates of your course and entitles you for a discount for that period.
You can now produce your own letters using eVision. Before you do however, you need to check your addresses are up to date.
To do this you will need to log in using your university username, this usually looks something like this: a123456b.
If your addresses are not current on eVision, please first update your term time and home address through your eVision portal. Log in, go to the ‘My Personal Details’ tab, followed by the ‘View or amend profile’ option.
You can then download and print your own letters using the following instructions:
- Log in to your eVision portal. Select the ‘My Student Self Service’ Tab along the top of the page.
- You then need to scroll to the ‘My Letters’ box on the right side of the home screen and select ‘Student Council Tax Letter’.
- You will need to follow the prompts and save the pdf. version.
If you are having difficulties generating your own letters you can email studentconnect@staffs.ac.uk with your student reference number and request a council tax exemption letter.
You can now upload the letter on your local council’s council tax portal and apply for a discount.
What to do if you forgot to apply for discount?
So, you forgot to apply for a discount and are now receiving mail from the council asking you to pay outstanding charges on council tax. Don’t panic, you can still apply for council tax reductions and upload your evidence. The council will then cancel the charges for the months covered by your council tax exemption letter.