Disabled Students Allowance - paid for additional costs incurred for being a Disabled Student Disability Living Allowance - paid for additional costs incurred for being a Disabled person. DLA should be used to pay for additional costs necessary because of a disability - please direct students requiring more money for foodstuffs or bedding or other related items to your money advisers or get out your pens and help'em with the incredibly restrictive and difficult form for DLA. (My minimum record for filling one in is 2 hours) Please don't believe the hype that the country is being bled dry by benefit fraudsters, people who should get DLA are not even applying. Hope that helps the discussion move on. Chris -----Original Message----- From: Ian Francis [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 2:17 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Diabetes This thread seems to be focusing on the impact of additional dietary requirements, when there are more issues to be considered. Re diet and medication: Brian's response seems to be the right one based on the rules as they are at the moment. The Access/Hardship funds should be approached. I take the point that poor diet will cause problems but the DSA shouldn't be used to prop up inconsistencies or failings in other daily living costs that the individual will incur irrespective of whether he or she is in education or not. While attending an HEI might incur additional costs because it can be argued that the individual needs to store insulin in a controled environment ie a personal fridge, in college accomodation, I think diet is another issue altogether. It seems to be a huge assumption that student X might be more properly fed or better able to eat if 'at home', and that it costs more to eat now he or she is at uni. I can't see it as a DSA claim, though I could see how a uni might allow successful application to Access/Hardship - though how they work out the extra costs is probably up to the individual uni. There doesn't seem to be any daily living income benefits the individual can claim irrespective of whether he or she is in education or not, for diet only, see http://www.dss.gov.uk/gbi/5a59527.htm If anyone can advise otherwise, I think we'd all benefit from being able to pass this info on. If the effects of the diabetes are impacting on ability to participate in course activities, as they often do, (e.g. fatigue, effects on concentration, mobility, visual impairment, etc) - an assessment for study aids/strategies should identify solutions. Ian Francis On 27 Mar 2001, at 16:31, Bryan Jones wrote: > Room for another reply? > > University Hardship fund / Access fund. Over £3K > available, which will buy a lot of diabetic foodstuffs > (and perhaps a fridge to put it in) and would perhaps be > more appropriate. > > On Tue, 27 Mar 2001 13:57:25 +0100 Larry Harding > <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > Has anyone had any experience of DSA grants for Type1 insulin > > dependent diabetes please? Many thanks Larry Harding Dartington > > Bryan Jones > Equal Opportunities Adviser > London Guildhall University > > Tel: 020 7320 1137 >