BIS re-opens comments on DSA change and cuts document due to unfortunate error

The deadline for comments on the draft DSA Guidance has been extended to 20th February. This is the document that contains cuts to students’ access to printers, scanners and book allowance during a period when universities have won reprieve from support worker cuts on the grounds that they needed more time to organize themselves in order to meet legal duties. It also confirms that students will be expected to contribute £200 towards a computer to run assistive software that is recommended as part of their needs assessment. It has been very difficult for those who work with disabled students to ascertain whether there is or has been appropriate consultation or notification to stakeholders and those who will be affected by these changes. The deadline has been extended because BIS acknowledge that information was simply not available. Comments and feedback goes to disabledstudentsallowances@bis.gsi.gov.uk

Non medical helpers; competitive, commercial environment but we still have ‘one quote’ monopolies?

A recent response to a Freedom of Information request for details about a Student Loans Company information gathering exercise about the arrangements for non-medical helper supply notes that one of the reasons why the full data should not be released is that it “might prejudice the commercial interests of these supplier “operate in a operate in a competitive, commercial environment”. Fair enough points, especially when read in the context of the information having been volunteered without knowing at the time that it might be released publically and that 20% of universities did not reply. However, the Student Loans Company holds a ‘one quote’ list of around 200 universities who are exempt from competition in this competitive environment. In other words, there is no competition….

SLC release new DSA statistics

Supplementary statistics released last week by the Student Loans Company have a more detailed breakdown of DSA student numbers and expenditure than have previously been made available in public. Over the past 3 full academic years, the number of students in receipt of DSA has increased and so has the total DSA spend. The spend per student appears fairly static at around the £2.2k mark. In 12/13 the portioning of DSA seems to have taken a turn: less spent on equipment, more on non-medical helper. Hard to come to any conclusions without the complete figures for following years. Very obvious the needs assessment fee will come under scrutiny now it has been separated out from NMH and placed in general allowance: it’s there plain to see.

Stealth Cuts: DSA and A2W parallels

DWP and BIS are using veiled processes to inflict cuts to disabled people. Parliamentary investigation into Access to Work found that "many Access to Work applicants and service users are unclear about the basis on which the Department makes decisions on eligibility and levels of awards. There is currently an unacceptable lack of clarity and transparency around this"(page 44) The same is true with regard to Disabled Students Allowance. The current application form for DSA and the information available on the direct.gov website and Student Loans Company does not inform students that the evidence submitted must show that they have a disability as defined by the Equality Act. This was a change to eligibility standards that was brought in before an impact analysis and with little or no consultation or notice for disability advisers. DSA has also experienced the 'consultation that was not a consultation' and the issuing of draft administrative guidance for comment that contains nothing to actually comment on in key areas such as the process for collecting the £200 laptop tax, exceptional case process, appeals and adjudication. There is detailed background on the Access to Work 'quiet cuts' situation in the Guardian plus a comment about the parallels with DSA.

Fall in numbers of part time students may mean fewer disabled students in higher education

Statistics released last week show that the number of part time students in higher education continues to fall. Part time study is an option for people who find the logistics of physical or cognitive demands of full time attendance and full-on independent study exhausting, or overwhelming. A study by the NUS and OU in Wales in 2104 found that 22% of the students they surveyed were disabled people. That is a much higher proportion than the 5 – 10% often cited as a rule of thumb measure of the number of disabled students in UK universities as a whole. The fall has been noted by the Office of Fair Access. As reported in the Guardian, the fall in part time numbers will also mean a fall in the numbers of students who are 'traditionally underrepresented' in universities.

confusion about cut to disabled students allowance detail triggers parliamentary question

Hereditary peer (LibDem) and vice president of the British Dyslexia Association Dominic Addington has has raised questions in the House of Lords about forthcoming DSA cuts. Addington writes: "my question in the Lords was inspired by the amount of confusion there is within all the groups involved in the DSA, ranging from suppliers to students, over what exactly is going to be in place once these reforms go through." Draft guidance has been issued about the proposed changes but it lacks details about how students will be asked for the £200 for a computer through the DSA, how exceptional cases will be considered, or how non medical helper support will be funded for existing DSA students who will still be staying after the reform date of academic year 16/17. There is lack of details also about the proposed 'bulk buying' and 'streamlining'; these elements appear to have been open to lobbying over the summer but closed in terms of information to stakeholder groups. Lord Addingtion was told "disabled groups and their representatives have recognised and welcomed the changes" which means that at some stage since the modernisation announcement in April 2014 some people, somewhere and somehow have agreed a laptop tax, a reduction in IT peripherals, abolition of the book allowance and cuts to funds for accommodation to be enacted through a more combative and complaints based process.

NUS campaign lumps DSA into a general 'costs of education' campaign

The National Union of Students have chosen lump DSA in with other cuts in a cost of education project. No doubt have a good reason for it but it seems stange that they have dropped what was an intense 'stop the cuts/ degrees of discrimination' campaign. Perhaps they have misunderstood? In September 2014 the NUS put out a statement that claimed the DSA cuts had been postponed for 2 years. It was true that HEIs won a delay on the reducrion on the range of medical helper support to be funded through the DSA. But students starting courses in September 2015 will experience a combination of less in the way of equipment and general allowances while also having to find £200 for a computer.