Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of the changes to the Disabled Students' Allowance on the number of university applications in the forthcoming academic year.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The reform of Disabled Students’ Allowances is intended to ensure higher education institutions are consistently meeting their duties to disabled students under the Equality Act, and is not expected to impact on application rates.
The Government carried out an Equality Analysis as part of the recent consultation on reforms to Disabled Students’ Allowances. This is available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/481527/bis-15-658-disabled-students-allowances-equality-analysis.pdf
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether he plans to conduct an equality impact assessment on the effect of changes to the Disabled Students' Allowance.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
An Equality Analysis was undertaken as part of the consultation exercise on reforms to Disabled Students’ Allowances. This was published on 2 December 2015.
Asked by: Chris Leslie (The Independent Group for Change - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many people were (a) in receipt of the Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) in 2015-16 and (b) affected by proposed changes to the DSA by constituent region of the UK.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Student support for Higher Education in the UK is a devolved issue.
Statistics showing the number of English applicants awarded Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) are published annually by the Student Loans Company (SLC) in the Statistical First Release ‘Student Support for Higher Education in England’.
http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/financial-support-awarded/england-higher-education.aspx
We are only partway through the academic year 2015/16 and so published figures only provide an early indication of DSA support for the whole academic year.
The changes being introduced in 2016/17 will apply to all students applying for DSAs for the first time from the 2016/17 academic year, and are intended to ensure that Higher Education Institutions are meeting their responsibilities to disabled students under the Equalities Act.