Disabled Students’ Allowance

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara Excerpts

Monday 30th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My noble friend may well be aware that the focus on DSA expenditure will be on the most complex and acute needs. DSA expenditure generally has increased—from £87.8 million in 2009-10 to £125.1 million—so a review of DSA expenditure, as technology advances have been made, is long overdue; it has been 25 years since we last looked at it. Of course, we will look at each case, including specialist requirements and complex cases, and where it is established that a case is complex, students will be supported.

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that research at Edinburgh University has found that disabled students who claim DSA at present have lower drop-out rates than disabled students who do not claim the allowance and non-disabled students? Is it true that the changes that are proposed will in effect mean that the money that is currently paid to individual students through personal budgets is to be transferred, with no additional funding, to the universities themselves? Does that not run against current government policy in these matters?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

I have already stated the Government’s position on the need for sustainability of the DSA. The noble Lord is quite right to point out that the expenditure to higher education institutions is being rebalanced, and this is to ensure that within the realms of the Equality Act 2010 they, too, step up to the mark. Indeed, many institutions have. This is all about ensuring that in the existing conditions the money is spent in a focused way on the students who most need it, and that we balance what we spend on the DSA with what the universities and higher education institutions should spend themselves.