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Evidence for Special Support Grant Help?

Hi, Just a small query I want to hopefully get answered. I'm hopefully going to be attending Plymouth university in 4 months to study a Degree in computing and Games development.

I've applied for loans & grants/bursaries and also the special support grant as i had a learning disability of Aspergers & ADHD.

Couple of days ago i received a letter from SFE in the post stating I didn't provide the evidence for special support grant when i made my application (mainly due to the fact there was no option telling me to do send any evidence for it).

Upon reading the letter it simply states in simple terms: "We need the following information which you did not give in your application form".

However directly below this where you would expect to see some bullet points detailing out what evidence is required it simply goes on talking about me sending photocopies of the evidence without actually stating what evidence I need to sending in the 1st place.

As a result of making me clueless as to what i should be sending as evidence I pose the question to my fellow students who might be able to answer this question in which what evidence is actually require for special support grant? Is a doctors letter stating the condition or what?

Reply 1

Tiger Rag

You usually have to be on disability benefits, such as DLA to claim the special support grant. You won't get the SSG on the basis of your disability.

Reply 2

balotelli12

Even then being on DLA alone isn't enough. You have to get the disability premium or severe disability premium.

Reply 3

Tiger Rag

Original post by balotelli12

Even then being on DLA alone isn't enough. You have to get the disability premium or severe disability premium.

No. Receiving DLA is enough. You would only have to be entitled to the disability premium within benefits. When I applied, I wasn't receiving any benefits apart from DLA and received it.

Reply 4

balotelli12

I think you are wrong. This is copied off the DirectGov site. It has very strict conditions
You may be eligible for a Special Support Grant if you:

are a lone parent;
have a partner who is also a student; one or both of you is responsible for a child or young person under 20 who is in full-time non-advanced education;
have a disability and qualify for the disability premium or severe disability premium;
are deaf and qualify for Disabled Students’ Allowances;
have been treated as incapable of work for a continuous period of at least 28 weeks;
are from abroad and are entitled to an Income Support Urgent Cases Payment because you are temporarily without funds for a period of up to six weeks;
are waiting to go back to a course having taken agreed time out from that course due to an illness or caring responsibility that has now ended;
are aged 60 or older.

Reply 5

Tiger Rag

I'm not wrong. Having a disability isn't enough. To get the disability premium, you'd normally have to be on DLA. You don't have to be claiming any income based benefits. I wasn't at the time of my application and got accepted.

Reply 6

Marcbrooks

i was speaking with my mother who confirmed to me i was earning DLA, which makes me wonder as DLA is what makes you eligible for Disability Premium which get automatically added to your income support or so it says on https://www.gov.uk/disability-premiums-income-support/eligibility

but then what makes me wonder is that then if its added automatically then why would i have received that letter as i would of already been made eligible for SSG

Reply 7

Tiger Rag

Did you send a copy of your DLA letter off? That's the evidence they need.

Reply 8

Marcbrooks

Thanks for the info, now i'll send it off now. wish they would make it more simple in the letter they sent instead of posting a load a garble just say they need letter of DLA.