Student exemptions and discounts
If you have full-time students resident in your property you may be eligible for a discount depending on how many other adults live in the property, or an exemption if the property is occupied solely by students who fulfil the criteria.
Students
To qualify as a student, you must either:
Be undertaking a full-time course of education - studying for 21 hours per week for 24 weeks per academic year
or: be under 20 years, not on a full-time course but studying for at least 12 hours a week for at least 3 months and not on a course of higher education. Evening classes and correspondence courses do not qualify.
or: be a foreign language assistant, working in a school or other educational establishment anywhere in Great Britain, provided that they are registered as foreign language assistants with the British Council.
Properties where one or more adult is a full-time student
If there are two adults resident in your property and one is a full-time student you will be able to apply for a 25% discount on your charge.
If there are two or more adults in the property who are not students then you will not be able to claim the discount.
Properties occupied solely by full-time students
If all the occupants in your property are full-time students you will be able to claim an exemption on your charge. Please contact the Council Tax section for a form. Each student will need to provide a Council Tax certificate from their college or university.
Has your child moved from your home to become a student?
If you are now the only adult in the property because someone in your property has gone away to college or university then you can claim a 25% reduction on your charge, due to sole adult occupancy. This is because we will treat the student's term-time address as their main residence.
How to apply
Student's will need to provide a Council Tax certificate from their college or university, which should indicate the course is full-time with the start/end dates.
This will need to be returned along with a student claim form which you can print here
Student application form
Tel: (01453) 766321
Email: revenue.services@stroud.gov.uk
Tell us about a change
If you no longer qualify for a student person discount please let us know by emailing revenue.services@stroud.gov.uk, phoning the council tax helpline (01453) 766321 or write to us at the council, quoting your council tax account reference number and/or address.
You may have to pay a fine if you don’t tell us.