england-and-wales refugee-law council-tax
Are asylum seekers, or refugees, liable for council tax?
<p>It would make more sense i suppose for those with pending applications who are unable to work. But just wondering. Seen some pages online that are vague about it.</p>

<p>Determining just which people count as &quot;disregards&quot; (i.e. people who don't &quot;count&quot;) for the purposes of a Council Tax calculation can be confusing to say the least!</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/who-has-to-pay" rel="nofollow noreferrer">UK Gov site</a> lists the following people as &quot;disregards&quot;:</p>
<ul>
<li>under 18 years old</li>
<li>on certain apprentice schemes</li>
<li>18 or 19 years old and in full-time education</li>
<li>a full-time student at college or university</li>
<li>under 25 years old and get funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency</li>
<li>a student nurse</li>
<li>a foreign language assistant registered with the British Council</li>
<li>severely mentally impaired</li>
<li>a live-in carer for someone who is not your partner, spouse, or child under 18</li>
<li>a diplomat</li>
</ul>
<p>Which sounds perfectly simple, no asylum seekers or refugees on there! Except this list is incomplete!</p>
<p>The relevant bit of legislation is <em>The Council Tax (Discount Disregards) Order 1992</em> <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/548/contents" rel="nofollow noreferrer">S.I. 1992/548</a> which gives the basic list and has been <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/changes/affected/uksi/1992/548?results-count=50&amp;sort=affected-year-number&amp;page=1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">amended</a> substantially over the years but then there's <em>also</em> the <em>The Council Tax (Additional Provisions for Discount Disregards) Regulations 1992</em> <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/uksi/1992/552" rel="nofollow noreferrer">S.I. 1992/552</a>, which has itself been amended and added to by <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/changes/affected/uksi/1992/552" rel="nofollow noreferrer">additional</a> S.I.s over the years (and trawling through them on legislation.gov.uk is a nightmare!) but the only one I can find referring to refugees was <em>The Council Tax (Discount Disregards and Exempt Dwellings) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2022</em> <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2022/439/regulation/2/made" rel="nofollow noreferrer">S.I. 2022/439</a> and its Welsh counterpart which makes an explicit reference to refugees who are on a visa under the &quot;Homes for Ukraine&quot; scheme creating a new class of &quot;disregard&quot; persons thus:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Class G: a person who holds permission to enter or to stay in the United Kingdom granted under the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme route in Appendix Ukraine Scheme of the Immigration Rules.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of course even if an entire household consists of &quot;disregard&quot; persons there's <em>still</em> a Council Tax bill - it's just discounted to 50%.</p>
<p>But wait! There's exceptions to <em>that</em> as well - as per <em>The Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992</em> <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/558/article/3/made" rel="nofollow noreferrer">S.I. 1992/558</a>), which has had various amendments itself but again the only important changes for your question is in S.I. 2022/4329 and is in section 3:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(b)after paragraph (3) insert—
“(3A) For the purposes of Classes B, D, E, F, H, I, J, K, L, Q and T of article 3, in considering whether a dwelling is unoccupied, any occupation by a relevant Ukrainian person is to be disregarded.”.
3) In article 3—</p>
<p>(a)in Class N, in paragraph (2)(a)—</p>
<p>(i)at the end of sub-paragraph (ii) omit “or”;</p>
<p>(ii)at the end of sub-paragraph (iii) insert—“or</p>
<p>(iv)where there are other residents of the dwelling who fall within (i), (ii) or (iii) above, a relevant Ukrainian person;”;</p>
<p>(b)in Class S at the end insert “or one or more such persons together with one or more relevant Ukrainian persons”;</p>
<p>(c)in Class U for paragraph (2)(a) substitute—</p>
<p>“(a)“relevant person” means—</p>
<p>(i)a person falling within paragraphs (i), (ii) or (iii) of paragraph (2)(a) of Class N above; or</p>
<p>(ii)a relevant Ukrainian person; and”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So if it's <em>all</em> Ukrainian refugees - no council tax bill.</p>
<p>If it's all:</p>
<ul>
<li>Students (Class N)</li>
<li>Residents under 18 (Class S)</li>
<li>Severely Mentally Impaired (Class U)</li>
</ul>
<p>living with Ukrainian refugees it's exempt and there's no bill.</p>
<p>To further muddy the waters individual councils can offer discretionary council tax reductions to additional classes of individuals - which may account for some of the contradictory information you've been seeing online.</p>
