Dear all
I have just been speaking to the NHS Student Grants Unit about students
who are on Nursing, Midwifery, Occupational Therapy or Physiotherapy
courses and who are eligible for the DSA. Ordinarily, if a student on
one of these courses is eligible for the DSA then the Student Grants
Unit acts in place of their LEA and administers the allowance for them.
However, I've just been told that, if the student is not eligible for an
NHS bursary, then the Student Grants Unit will *not* administer their DSA.
This has come up quite late into the process of applying for DSA for one
of our students, who has now been told by the Student Grants Unit that
not only with the SGU not administer their DSA but that the SGU will
also not pay for their Needs Assessment, despite previous assurances
that they would pay.
In this particular case there appears to be no reason why the student
would be ineligible for the DSA itself, but they will now need to
contact their LEA to see whether they will agree to administer the
allowance as the SGU are refusing to do this themselves.
Has anyone else come across this situation? I have looked at the SGU's
new website and it does have one line that states that they won't
administer DSA for students who are not receiving bursaries - but they
don't give any other information about what a student in this situation
should do. We will of course continue to provide support for the
student while all of this is sorted out, but as you can imagine it has
caused them quite a bit of anxiety.
I thought I would let the list know about this rule, as it doesn't seem
to be very widely advertised.
Thanks,
Honey Lucas
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Honey Lucas
Disabled Student Adviser
Student Services
Oxford Brookes University
Headington Campus
Headington Hill
Oxford OX3 0BP
Tel: 01865 484689
Fax: 01865 484656
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