We do not include some adult residents of your household when calculating your Council Tax bill – they are classified as ‘disregarded persons’.

Find out if you’re eligible

Disregarded persons are:

• people who are severely mentally impaired
• people caring for someone in their property with a disability who is not a spouse, partner, or child under 18
• anyone whose sole or main residence is within a council-registered care home, nursing home or similar establishment, including hostels, mental nursing homes and residential care homes
• care workers on low pay living in accommodation provided by an employer
• patients whose sole residence is a hospital

• full time students, student nurses and foreign language assistants
• youth training trainees, including YCTs, Options, Future and Next Step and apprentices
• 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds who are at school, or have left school or college after 30 April until the following November
• some non-British spouses and dependents of students

• people over 18 for whom Child Benefit is payable

• people in detention, including prisoners
• residents of hostels or night shelters not in separate and self-contained premises, provided for persons who have no fixed abode or no settled way of life and under a licence to occupy which is not a tenancy
• members of international headquarters and defence organisations and their dependents
• members of visiting forces and dependents, for example, lodging with British citizens
• members of certain religious communities
• diplomats and senior officials (and their dependants) of certain international organisations.

Property solely occupied by people under 18

A property occupied only by people under 18 years old is exempt from Council Tax. Evidence will need to be supplied to confirm their ages.

Disregarded persons are not included when counting adults in a residence. Even if a property has more than two adults, a discount of 25% or 50% may still apply. If two adults live at the property who are not disregarded, the full Council Tax bill must be paid.

How to apply

To apply for an exemption, please complete our form. You'll need to know your Council Tax account number.

• Bournemouth residents - Apply for disregarded person discount
• Christchurch residents - Apply for disregarded person discount
• Poole residents - Apply for disregarded person discount.

If you need any help with completing the form, please contact us.

Change in circumstances

If you’ve had a discount on your recent bill, you must let us know about any changes in circumstances, like people moving in or out of the property. If you do not tell us, you risk a £70 fine and a backdated bill.

Additional information

The Government also has information on who does not count as an adult for Council Tax purposes.