Universities and colleges normally have a students' union. Its
affairs are administered by full- time officers, elected from the
student body. A union officer interrupts his course for a
sabbatical year whilst he is a union official so that he can devote
his full attention to union matters. The individual may retain
student status at the university etc but he does not receive
full-time education whilst acting as a union official. The
sabbatical year forms no part of his course and no examinations are
taken at the end of the year. Any local education authority grant
is suspended throughout the term of office and in its place he
normally receives a payment at an equivalent rate (but for the full
52 weeks) out of the funds of the union.
Payments to the union officer from union funds are earnings
from an office or employment with the union and are taxable as
employment income. Exemption is unlikely to be due under Section
331, as the student does not receive full- time instruction during
the relevant period. Furthermore, the payments received are not
scholarship income but a salary paid in return for services to the
union.
(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the
Freedom of Information Act 2000)
