Tier 2 Public Funds

[PriyamMaheshwari]

Hi,

I am currently on PSW and now I am switching to Tier 2 General. I am staying with a student and therefore I get 25% discount in council tax. Now looking at the Tier 2 application it seems that its not legal for me to claim that discount and I am not sure whether its Council tax benefit or Council tax reduction which I am getting. Please advice how to fix this at the earliest.

Regards,
Priyam

[iworker]

you have answered the question urself..
its not a benefit.. its concil tax exemption due to single occupancy becausae the other person is student.

[manci]

The council tax bill for the property is not reduced because of you, a worker, but because you happen to be staying with a student. IMHO this is therefore only an indirect benefit to you and you are not receiving public funds directly, i.e. the NO box can be ticked at G1 on the application form.

Re. public funds see:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas ... blicfunds/

and in any case council tax discounts (now called council tax reduction) are not considered public funds in the context of the Immigration Rules. See p8:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary

[Althalus]

It's neither. I did some research on this some time ago before applying for my tier 2 extension. Seems benefits and reductions are means-tested. Also the layman term "25% discount/reduction" they use for this reduction, does not exactly match the definition of "reductions" according to some law (I don't remember now which one now).
If I am not mistaken (someone correct me if I am wrong), it turns out they consider reductions as "discretionary reductions" - where you have to present a case before a judge to get them approved.
And benefits are means-tested.

The 25% single-occupancy discount falls in neither of these categories as it's something offered to everyone. Even a millonaire could claim it if he lived alone in a mansion.

In practice, I have applied for a Tier 2 extension, whilst claiming 25% discount for single-occupancy and I have had no problems whatsoever. I have had some home office checks carried on me some time afterwards after some problems with my visa, and they turned out fine even as well.

Furthermore, the second link manci mentioned, page 8, states that single person discounts are not considered public funds.

I think you will be safe ticking "no" in all the relevant boxes.