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1. What are Disabled Students’ Allowances for?
Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) help to pay for extra study-related costs that you may have to pay as a direct result of your disability, medical condition, mental health difficulty or specific learning difficulty.
DSAs can help with the costs of:
• support workers
• items of specialist equipment
• travel
• other costs, e.g. internet, photocopying, printing, books |
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2. Am I eligible for DSAs?
DSAs are not dependent on your income or the income of your family.
You are eligible to apply for DSA if you are a Home student and you are studying:
• a full-time undergraduate course
• a full-time taught or research postgraduate course, which lasts for at least one year
• a part-time undergraduate, or part-time taught or research postgraduate course, which does not take more than twice as long to complete as an equivalent full-time course.
You are not eligible to apply for DSAs if:
• you are an EU student and are eligible only for support with your fees
• you are an International student
• you are a sandwich-course student on a full-year paid placement.
See question 9 in this section for further information, if you are not eligible to apply for DSAs. |
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3. When should I apply for DSAs?
The application process can take several months to complete. You should therefore apply as soon as you can in order to receive your support promptly.
If you are a prospective student you can start the application for DSAs from the September before your course starts. However, you can apply for DSAs at any stage during your course. |
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4. How and to whom do I apply for DSAs?
You will need to apply to your funding body (ie Student Finance England, Local Authority, NHS or Research Council).
Contact your funding body and ask them how to apply for DSA funding. They may ask you to fill in an application form.
Please contact us if you need any help to apply. |
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5. What evidence do I need to provide with my application?
You will need to provide evidence of your disability, medical condition, mental health difficulty, or specific learning difficulty. For example, you could provide a doctor’s letter or educational psychologist’s report.
Your doctor’s letter should include:
• Information about symptoms and side effects of any medication
• The effect of that your condition has on daily life
• The effect that your condition is likely to have on your studies
• Any previous support you have received
Educational psychologist’s report should be written by a suitably qualified professional and should be a post-16 diagnosis.
If you do not have a post-16 diagnosis for Specific Learning Difficulties, please see here |
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6. What happens after I’ve applied?
Your funding body will ask you to have a DSA needs assessment carried out to match your needs with the demands of your course and make recommendations for support.
The DSA needs assessment will be carried out at an independent assessment centre or at a centre within a college or university. Your funding body will usually recommend a selection of local assessment centres that you can attend. |
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7. What happens after my needs assessment?
The assessment centre will send a copy of your needs assessment report to you, to your funding body and to the Disability Adviser at your University if you give permission for them to do this.
Your funding body will then consider the recommendations in the report and will write to you to confirm the recommendations that they are willing to support with DSAs. This letter is important as it provides the evidence that your funding body have agreed to pay for your support. |
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8. How do I get my support?
Some funding bodies are willing to agree to payment for any specialist equipment and training that is provided in your assessment report shortly before your course begins. The letter that you receive from them should explain whether this is possible and how you should go about ordering this equipment.
When you arrive and register at University, it is important that you make contact with the Disability and Dyslexia Support Service (DDSS) as soon as possible, bringing along a copy of your needs assessment and your funding body approval letter. The adviser you meet with can then organise for any other support to be put into place early in your first few weeks at University.
If you have a copy of the funding body approval letter before you start your course, it will help to speed up the organisation of your support if you send the letter to the DDSS before you come to register at University. |
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9. If I’m not eligible to apply for DSAs, what should I do?
It is important that you contact the DDSS as soon as you have a fully confirmed place at the University. An adviser with the service will then contact you to discuss the support that you feel is needed whilst you are studying at the University.
It is likely that some funding can be made available to put together a package of support and to arrange reasonable adjustments to help you to fully engage with your studies. |
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