Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the change in the number of disabled students taking up the specialist equipment allowance element of the disabled student allowance scheme.

The most recent data shows that, for full-time undergraduate students domiciled in England, 4,600 fewer students were in receipt of Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) equipment in 2015/16 than in 2014/15. The full data is available at: http://www.slc.co.uk/official-statistics/financial-support-awarded/england-higher-education.aspx. This fall was expected as the £200 student contribution to the costs of computer hardware took effect from September 2015.

We are keen to better understand the impact of DSAs on eligible students, including that of recent DSA reforms. We have recently commissioned a research project to explore this and we will respond to the research findings when they are available in spring 2018.