You’ve moved to the UK to start your student life. You’ve even found your perfect student accommodation, found a UK guarantor and decorated your room. You’re just about to settle in into your new student home until you start hearing all of these other bills you need to pay. Council Tax, TV License, Water Bill etc.
You’re a student, TV License? what’s that? Council Tax? never heard of it. If you’re just as confused as thousands of other students to know which bills you need to pay and which you don’t, read through our guide to get a better sense to what you need to do.
This is a bill that you can’t get away from. Just like everyone else residing in the UK, student or not you have to pay your TV license. Also at the risk of being the bearer of bad news furthermore, students do not receive a discounted price to pay TV license. There is no student TV license.
However, interestingly enough you do only have to pay TV license if you watch live TV on any channel, and watch or listen to anything that involves the BBC. This includes catch-up on-demand TV such as BBC iPlayer. So, if you are the type of person who watches everything on streaming sites like Netflix or Amazon Prime, you will be exempt in paying that £150ish yearly bill for TV license. All you need to do in this situation is just notify the TV licensing organisation that you don’t require to pay, using their website.
Although please be advised, if you are caught watching/listening to anything on BBC or watching live TV on any other channel too, without paying your TV license you’ll be fined. The fine is usually around at least £1000. If you think there will be a time you’d like to enjoy watching some programmes on the BBC or anything on ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 etc. It’s really not worth risk and I’d recommend just paying.
If you are moving into student halls, there’s most likely a TV that comes with your accommodation. In these cases, which applies to most students going into their first year of university. The TV license is normally included in the cost of the rent, as stated in the tenancy agreement. So you don’t need to worry about this at all.
The council tax bill is a more straightforward. Unlike the TV license, that there is no thing as student TV license. There is a student council tax. Full time students are exempt and do not pay council tax. If you’re moving into student halls, these accommodation types are automatically exempt and you do not need to do anything. If you’re moving into a student house, all you need to do is provide your Student Certificate and your student number. Both of which, your university will have for you to access. You do have to be at least 18 usually, and be a full time student. If you are a student in Newcastle for example, check their site for more information here. Most likely, everywhere in the UK will operate in the same way as Newcastle council.
Right so you’ve got these out the way with and you can finally relax. Well only for a moment because you’ve assignments coming up soon. Do check out our blog post on how to study more effectively.
