Council tax: Simple solutions are not out of reach

The news that the City of Edinburgh Council does not know how many students are sent council tax requests will come as little surprise to those who receive them. A number will be more than aware of how difficult it can be to deal with the council’s benefits office, and likewise how concerning it can be to receive a letter demanding hundreds of pounds within a fortnight.

Similarly, students are entitled to be angry at receiving demands for payment after sending appropriate documentation to the council, and although it may only apply to extreme cases, the sending of bailiff’s letters to properties who qualify for exemptions weeks after they have been applied for is absolutely inexcusable.

Students account for nearly two thirds of exempt properties in Edinburgh so, inevitably, any backlog of exemption requests is likely to be dominated by student applications. It seems obvious, therefore, that a more fluent exemption system for the student community would go a long way to making the overall council tax collection process more efficient.

Student rolls are kept by every university, so providing an easily accessible database of all those who are full-time students and who are therefore not eligible for council tax payment. A regularly updated system whereby the council is made aware of who falls into exemption categories, should present a simply solution to ensure that Edinburgh’s 50,000 strong student population is not hassled for payments which they are not required to make.

This relates directly to the second main problem with the current system: as students are not automatically exempt, but are instead entitled to exemptions, they are required to contact the council to make sure that they are not charged. This means that letters sent to students requesting payment are identical to those sent to individuals who are actually required to pay. No details are given regarding the exemption process – only threats demanding payment. For somebody unfamiliar with the council tax system this will undoubtedly lead to significant, and unnecessary, confusion. If the experience of being a student in Edinburgh is to be a positive one, where simple measures to remove any undue financial stress exist, they must be taken.

In this light, calls from local politicians for students and council authorities to liaise over reforms to the system are an important step. Pressure needs to be put on the council to formulate a system whereby students do not have to spend weeks chasing up requests; but universities need to do their bit to make sure that they have records which are up to date, complete, and available to the Council.

Recent discussion over radical reforms of the council tax system—for instance, the introduction of local income tax—must not be assumed to lead inevitably towards the smoothing over of problems in the current system. Such proposals, moreover, bring their own issues regarding the fairness of the local taxation framework. The solution here does not require wholesale shake-ups, or costly reforms. Instead, universities and the council need to recognise that students make an important contribution to the local community, and employ existing records to provide a much simpler process whereby students are automatically registered as exempt for the duration of their university career in the capital.