Is DSA paid with normal loan?

I was just checking my student finance to see what day the loan comes in and i clicked on disability allowance as i remember i did apply. I saw that it also had last year on there as well 2023/24.

On both this year and last year it says upload expenses etc related to disabilty. I dont have any expenses. But i noticed that it says on 23/24. Payments ready to be made. Does this mean that I never got my allowance last year? This year is my final year (4th Intergrated masters) and it says payments schedule. again is disability allowance added into my original amount or is it an additional payment, because now i am confused whether or not i got all of my loan.

Reply 1

Lemur14

Volunteer Team

Original post by inquisiterFAQ

DSA isn't just a straight loan with money paid, it's more common for them to grant you particular items to help (eg. a printer, subsidised laptop) Did you have your DSA assessment?

Reply 2

inquisiterFAQ

Original post by Lemur14

DSA isn't just a straight loan with money paid, it's more common for them to grant you particular items to help (eg. a printer, subsidised laptop) Did you have your DSA assessment?

I did a test before I even went to uni, that in pretty sure the uni paid for

Reply 3

Lemur14

Volunteer Team

Original post by inquisiterFAQ

I did a test before I even went to uni, that in pretty sure the uni paid for

DSA assessments are free. Did you go through the process described here? https://www.ucas.com/money-and-student-life/money/additional-funding/disabled-students-allowance-dsa/what-expect-dsa-assessment

Reply 4

saskiahdltea

DSA doesn't pay you any money.
You will have got all of your loan. DSA pays for equipment/support that they would have recommended during the test you mentioned. The bit on SFE that says DSA is for uploading receipts for pre-approved expenses, such as printer ink from DSA

Reply 5

University of Salford Student Rep

Official Rep

Original post by inquisiterFAQ

I was just checking my student finance to see what day the loan comes in and i clicked on disability allowance as i remember i did apply. I saw that it also had last year on there as well 2023/24.
On both this year and last year it says upload expenses etc related to disabilty. I dont have any expenses. But i noticed that it says on 23/24. Payments ready to be made. Does this mean that I never got my allowance last year? This year is my final year (4th Intergrated masters) and it says payments schedule. again is disability allowance added into my original amount or is it an additional payment, because now i am confused whether or not i got all of my loan.

Hi @inquisiterFAQ

This is a good question, as mentioned above by the other users Disabled Students Allowance isn’t ordinarily paid as a loan. Usually, it is a fund used to help cover the study-related costs of a disability, it is not means-tested. For example, this can be to pay for specialist equipment, non-medical helpers, extra travel to help attend university, and printing costs. What you will be entitled to will depend on your individual needs, for example, if DSA says you’re eligible to have your printing costs covered, usually you will need to upload the printer cartridge receipts after purchase then within a few weeks DSA will reimburse you, but you can always check directly with them for a more exact timeframe.

If you want to find out a little more detail about how DSA works, then this link is worth a look:

https://www.gov.uk/disabled-students-allowance-dsa

Alternatively, you can contact Student Finance England directly to check your entitlement:
https://www.gov.uk/contact-student-finance-england

I hope that was helpful?

Feel free to let me know if you have any more questions.

Lucy 😊
(Official University of Salford Rep)