Stage 1: Before you apply
Part-time undergraduate, Welsh students

Disabled Students' Allowance

Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) is extra support on top of your other student finance and can be used to pay for study-related costs such as equipment, non-medical help, travel and photocopying and printing.

You can apply for DSA to cover some of the extra costs you have because of a mental health condition, long term illness or any other disability.

You can get help with the costs of:

  • specialist equipment, for example a laptop if you need one because of your disability
  • non-medical helpers, for example a person such as a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter or specialist note-taker
  • extra travel costs, to attend your course or placement because of your disability
  • other disability-related costs of studying, for example having to print additional copies of documents for proof-reading

What's available

How much support you can get and what you can spend it on depends on your individual needs, not your household income.

You do not need to pay Disabled Students’ Allowance back.

Full-time and part-time undergraduate, and postgraduate students can get up to:

  • £33,146 for the 2023 to 2024 academic year
  • £32,546 for the 2022 to 2023 academic year

This can be used to cover the costs of specialist equipment, a non-medical helper and more general costs you may have.

There’s also a travel allowance available to cover any study related travel costs you may have due to your disability.

Who qualifies

You can apply for Disabled Students’ Allowance if you have a disability under the Equality Act 2010 that affects your ability to study, such as a:

  • specific learning difficulty, for example dyslexia or ADHD
  • mental health condition, for example anxiety or depression
  • physical disability, for example if you have to use crutches, a wheelchair or a special keyboard
  • sensory disability, for example if you’re visually impaired, deaf or have a hearing impairment
  • long-term health condition, for example cancer, chronic heart disease or HIV

You must also meet the standard student finance eligibility requirements (for example, the residency requirements and eligible student categories) to apply for Disabled Students’ Allowance. You can also check with your uni or college’s student finance advisors to discuss if your course qualifies for Disabled Students’ Allowance.

How to apply

You’ll need to send us an application form:

There's a guide to help you complete the form and explain what evidence you need to send:

You’ll need to reapply for DSA each year. You won’t normally need to send us more evidence unless your needs have changed.

Proving your disability

Check your online account or the application form to see what evidence you need to send us. You can also submit a disability evidence form:

You can email your evidence or form to our DSA team. Your evidence can also be sent by post.

Your needs assessment

After you’ve applied and your application has been approved, we’ll send you a letter with details of your supplier to arrange your needs assessment. If you give permission, we’ll pass your details directly to the supplier who’ll be in touch to arrange this.

You should make sure you upload any evidence before you attend your needs assessment.

Your DSA will pay for the cost of the assessment.

After the assessment, you’ll get an assessment report to tell you what equipment and other support you can get for your course.

Getting paid

We’ll either pay your money into your bank account or directly to the company providing the service or equipment. If you’ve made payments directly to the supplier, you can claim the costs back.

You can only claim for costs that have been included in your DSA2 entitlement letter.

Use this form if you need to claim for costs you’ve already paid for: