Monitoring impact of Disabled Students Allowance changes

A primary focus of the work of Go Higher West Yorkshire’s (GHWY) Disabled Students Network in this academic year has been to monitor the impact of the changes made to the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA). This is a government fund designed to cover the cost of study related costs that a disabled student may incur.
Background
Student Finance England has divided the UK into four geographical areas. In each area, partnerships were invited to submit a bid to coordinate the DSA Needs Assessment process, the supply of equipment and assistive technology, and training on equipment or software. Capita and Study Tech Limited were awarded the bid, and each has two of the geographical areas.
The changes were introduced in February 2024.
The objective of the change was to reduce the administrative burden on disabled students. It would provide a single point of contact for the process and support, thereby also reducing the time taken to complete the process and complexity.
Impact of the changes
Since Summer 2024, Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) have been reporting that the changes have not had the positive impact that Student Loan Company (SLC) anticipated.
The overall time taken to complete the DSA process is now longer compared to pre-February 2024, with students reporting waiting times of up to two months before receiving a needs assessment appointment. The waiting time for a response to an email query were between 43 and 49 working days throughout November 2024.
Staff within HEIs are aware of the importance of support being in place at the start of a student’s course. They also know that if this support is not present it can have a negative impact on transition and the establishment of effective study strategies to mitigate the impact of a disability in the early stages of study.
The changes have also put pressures on HEIs to provide interim support, sometimes at a cost to the institution. This cannot be claimed back through DSA.
Ahead of the change, the HEI sector was concerned that the closure of ‘local’ needs assessment centres would lead to assessors becoming more removed from the HEIs. This would mean they were less knowledgeable about how support and adjustments are managed in each institution. The recommendations in the needs assessment reports would then be less grounded in the HEI provision, potentially leading to more confusion for the student and difficulties in providing comprehensive and effective support. Many institutions in our area are reporting difficulties of this nature. This is especially problematic now, with many HEIs moving towards a more inclusive approach with less emphasis on the need to fully ‘evidence’ the impact of a disability before making an adjustment.
The quality of needs assessment reports has also been queried by some institutions. This then puts further pressure on staff within the HEIs who support students to raise these issues with SLC and try to find ways of supporting the student in the meantime.
In addition to challenges for students navigating the new process, students who were assessed before February 2024 are also impacted. Many of the Needs Assessment Centres that carried out their assessments are now closed. Where changes or adjustments need to be made to the support (e.g. the student needs a new quote for taxi travel), this is the responsibility of the original needs assessor. In their absence, these tasks are either being passed to the HEIs or are joining the back of the queue of emails to the DSA team.
Conclusion
Whilst GHWY’s Network is aware that work is ongoing to try and address the issues, we are alert to the negative impact this is having on disabled students as the difficulties are being resolved. HEIs continue to lobby SLC individually and via their professional bodies.
Simon Morris (University of Leeds) and Jo Mitchell (University of Huddersfield), Co-Chairs of GHWY’s Disabled Students Network