If you are a disabled student in UK higher education, DSA pays for the support that makes your course accessible. This guide explains what you can get, how to apply, and what happens once your support is approved.
Disabled Students' Allowance is government funding that covers the extra costs of studying because of a disability, long-term health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difference. It is not a loan, it is not means tested, and you do not repay it.
DSA can fund assistive technology and training, specialist equipment, some travel costs, and Non-Medical Help — the human support delivered by people like our notetakers, mentors and specialist tutors.
You can normally apply if you are studying an eligible higher education course in the UK, are eligible for student support, and have a disability, long-term health condition, mental health condition or specific learning difference that affects your ability to study.
It covers full-time and part-time study, undergraduate and postgraduate, distance learning and, in most cases, apprenticeship-linked degrees. You do not need to be receiving any other benefit to qualify.
1. Apply through your funding body — Student Finance England, or the equivalent body in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. If you already have a student finance account you can apply through it; if not, there is a standalone DSA application.
2. Provide evidence of your disability. This is normally a letter from a doctor or consultant, or a diagnostic assessment report for a specific learning difference.
3. Attend a Needs Assessment. This is a conversation, not a test, with an independent assessor at an approved centre. You talk through your course, how your disability affects your study, and what would help.
4. Receive your DSA2 entitlement letter. It lists the support that has been approved, including the number of hours of each Non-Medical Help role.
5. Choose a provider and start your support. That is where we come in.
Assessors are looking for the real-world barriers, so specifics help far more than diagnoses. Describe what actually happens: that you cannot follow a seminar and take notes at the same time, that scanned readings are unusable with your screen reader, that a bad week means you miss three deadlines rather than one.
Take your timetable, a module handbook and, if you have one, an example of a piece of work that went wrong. Concrete evidence turns into concrete recommended hours.
Once you have your DSA2 letter you can choose any provider on the approved supplier list. Send us your letter and we will confirm the roles and hours we can deliver, match you with practitioners, and set up your student area.
We invoice Student Finance directly at the published rates, so there is nothing for you to pay and no paperwork burden beyond confirming that your sessions took place.
Registration takes about ten minutes and is the fastest way to get started.
The most common mistake is waiting until term starts. Applications and Needs Assessments take time, and support that begins in week eight cannot rescue a term that went wrong in week two. Apply as soon as you have a place, even a conditional one.
The second most common is assuming a condition is 'not serious enough'. DSA is about impact on study, not severity in the abstract.
No. DSA is a grant, not a loan, and it is not means tested.
Allow around six to fourteen weeks from application to support starting, depending on evidence and Needs Assessment availability. Apply as early as you can.
Yes. You are free to choose any provider on the approved supplier list, and you can change provider if the support is not working.
You can ask for a review of your DSA entitlement. We can help you evidence what has changed.