I am in need of some advice!
I am in my first year at university in London, away from home. As a first year the uni offered me accommodation in Zone 4. I applied for a studio apartment but then realised it would be too expensive for me. After speaking to the accommodation and requesting to live in a shared flat, it was decided that the accommodation was not suitable for me due to my medical conditions and the space I'd need for machines and medication.
The accommodation officer offered me a bigger room at a different campus, for a cheaper price. I turned this down under "reasonable adjustment" because of the distance to my campus - my medication regime can take between 20mins and 2 hours, so I didn't want to travel for 1 hour every morning.
The uni then offered me a room very close to my campus, which was more money. I accepted. At my halls the single rooms cost £200 and the twin rooms cost about £350 per week.
My flatmate who is also 1st year was placed here for health reasons too - she lives in a single room. She applied and got a discount so only has to pay the accommodation rate had she been living in the zone4 accommodation, around £100 per month.
I live in a twin room (by myself) which costs me the same had I been placed in the single room. The university accommodation team had decided this would be best for me because of the space I'd need to do medication, which includes breathing machines and in periods of ill health a substantial amount of IV drug injections which I'm trained to do myself.
I have applied for the same discount and they have refused it, stating that because I already get a discount on the big room I shouldn't get another. My argument is:
1) I didn't ask for this room, it was allocation based on my medical needs,
2) the discount I am asking for is the difference in cost between a room I would have had in zone4 had they accommodated me and the room I am now living in.
They have said in order to receive this discount I would have to move to a smaller room. But this means I would have to store some medication securely outside my room (which they aren't willing to help me with), and they are not accounting for when I have to do my injections. They've pretty much said that if/when that occurs I'd have to somehow deal with the situation, and not accepting that space is a big factor. In order to do this medication my room would have to be approved by a nurse, who would deem it not acceptable due to lack of space. This means I would have to be admitted into hospital for 2/3 weeks worth of treatment, missing uni and costing the NHS an addition few thousand pound.
Because of my health, it would be pretty much impossible to work alongside uni so the £100 per month discount would be extremely useful to me due to living in a more expensive area.
I did apply for DSA which I do receive. The woman who did my assessment requested the accommodation difference, but DSA refused and have said its for the uni to give discounts to due to government cuts.
I have a remaining £700 to pay the uni accommodation. I deducted the discount I thought I should have had in semester 1 and semester 2 from the total. They keep sending my letters and emails about the remaining money, stating they'll tell my academic department if its not paid.
Is this indirect discrimination I am facing? Am I being unreasonable?