Student Loans Company DSA cut enforcement process : initial details

Student Loans Company have released the answers to frequently asked questions about the forthcoming cuts to Disabled Students Allowances. It is in fact the government department BIS who are behind the plans to cut printers, scanners, course software, book allowance - but the Student Loans Company are the organisation who will be enforcing the cuts and they now show outward signs of constructing a process that will make at least some of the modernisation measures workable. The SLC will be in charge of deducting £200 from the cost of the computer identified as part of the DSA needs assessment and of telling the student they cannot have the full cost of a computer through the DSA. That will put the SLC in the position of cut enforcers. There will be no appeal on the £200 because it has already been embedded into an amendment of the student finance regulations. SLC will always tell students they cannot have the full cost of a computer from the DSA. Under the current system, a student who wishes to purchase a computer from a non-DSA QAG supplier has to get an agreement from SLC on the amount that they are willing to reimburse. The amount seems to be based on either the lowest of the three computer prices in the DSA needs assessment report, or on a figure considered reasonable by SLC which is not related to an individual needs assessment. It will be interesting to see how SLC handle this in the future because there could be large numbers of students making a routine enquiry about open market reimbursement.