Roger Godsiff – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2014-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes to disabled students’ allowances on the number of disabled students completing higher or further education.

Mr David Willetts

The announced changes to Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) will be subject to a full equality analysis to determine the impact of these changes on students with protected characteristics. The equality analysis will be given full consideration before regulations are laid before the House.

These changes will apply to all full-time, full-time distance learning, part-time and postgraduate students in higher education applying for DSA for the first time from the 2015/16 academic year. DSAs are not available to further education students, as the Government provides Learning Support funding to further education colleges and providers to help meet the additional needs of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.