You're right David, I missed out the word NOT, as in *not* eligible for disability benefits and
LEA-based
payments in the UK.
However, some universities have a budget for disability services that is their own budget, not
tied to the
individual student. At mine, an overseas student would be able to get a full disability
assesssment, for example,
and we would definitely fund any access adjustments (like the ones the American student
who went to Uni in
Ireland described). That's under the DDA, which applies to citizens and non-citizens alike, so
we have to do it.
This would apply to mental ill health and learning disabilities as well as physical
impairments.
What might become very difficult is things like... paying your rent, buying food, paying for
transport, buying
equipment for use at home or off-campus. Non-citizens are not eligible for any disability
benefits in the UK, it's
stamped on your passport when you enter the country (I know, I am not a UK citizen and it's
stamped on mine).
If you do claim benefits, it's apparently a deportable offense, or so the Home Office tells me.
Us non-citizens
are, however, eligible for NHS health care... and that's about it.
My husband, a disabled mature student, has gotten kinda lucky by exploiting a loophole in
the above rules. We
entered the UK so I could go to Uni, he just came as my spouse. I now work here and we've
been here almost 5
years. After 3 years, if (and only if) he or she didn't enter the country on a student visa, a
non-citizen can
become eligible to attend university at home rates and therefore become eligible for LEA
funding. The law is
very, very fuzzy and we feel pretty lucky; others in the same situation have been turned down
and he almost
lost his funding last year because of some over-zealous person checking the paperwork. But
so far, knock on
wood, his tuition and equipment needs have been covered. The reason for this loophole, I
assume, is that while
people like us aren't citizens, we are taxpayers. He still can't claim disability allowance,
incapacity benefit,
unemployment, or anything like that, nor can we receive child tax credits, which would sure
be helpful in
paying for the extra needs of our autistic son. Buy hey, in all honesty I am just glad to live
somewhere where we
have health care, after many years of going without or paying scary amounts of money back
in the USA!
Giving you more information than you wanted to know, as always,
Mitzi
----- Original Message -----
From: David Quarter <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2006 4:43 pm
Subject: Re: PhD Research Request
> Mitzi,
>
> can you clarify: are you saying that disabled students from outside
> the UK are not
> entitled to funding?
>
> If not (if we can receive funding), is it available to those of us
> with mental
> impairments (e.g. OCD, Scizophrenia, etc)?
>
> David
________________End of message______________________
This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies). Enquiries about the list administratione should be sent to [log in to unmask]
Archives and tools are located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
|