I'm a student - do I have to pay?

If all of the occupiers of a home are students, the dwelling is completely exempt from council tax. If all but one of the occupiers is a student, a 25% discount is granted on the council tax bill.

Who qualifies?

To qualify as a student for council tax purposes, a person must either be:

A foreign language assistant

The person must be registered with the Central Bureau for Educational Visits & Exchanges and be appointed as a foreign language assistant at a school or other educational institution in Great Britain.

Undertaking a full-time course of education

The person must be enrolled for the purpose of attending a full-time course with a prescribed educational establishment. A full-time course is one which:

  • subsists for at least one academic year
  • requires attendance for at least 24 weeks in each year
  • requires study, tuition or work experience for an average of 21 hours per week

Undertaking a qualifying course of education

The person must be:

  • under 20 years old
  • not undertaking a course of full-time education

The course must:

  • be for more than three months
  • be for more than 12 hours per week
  • not be a course of higher education
  • not be a correspondence course
  • not be undertaken in connection with a job
  • involve tuition/studies between 8am and 5.30pm

How to apply 

All students can apply via our online application form. However, what we need from you will depend on where you study. 

To complete the form, anyone studying at an institution other than Queen Mary University will need to upload a copy of their student certificate. If you don't have one, contact your institution, who will be able to provide one. You will not be able to complete the form without this certificate. 

QMU Students

Please note that if you are studying at Queen Mary University of London you do not have to provide a student certificate, as your information will be passed directly to us by the University.

However, before you complete the form, you will need to have registered your current Tower Hamlets address with the university. Applications from addresses that have not yet been registered will be rejected. 

Complete the application form