NUS responds to DIUS announcement on Disabled Students' Allowance increases announced today (Wednesday)

Responding to confirmation that maximum amounts of Disabled Students' Allowances for non-medical help and for post-graduate disabled students' will be increased by 60 per cent National Union of Students Disabled Students' Officer Alex Kemp said

" This is very good news for disabled students. who require a lot of non-medical support for their studies and also for those studying at postgraduate level. These are considerable increases which will target extra support where it is most needed and help those students to get the most from their studies .

" Howeverthere is widespread agreement amongst partners in the sector that Disabled Students' Allowance should be introduced into Further Education in order to further improve the prospects of disabled people in the UK.

" We still face a situation whereby half as many disabled people are in post 16 education as opposed to non-disabled people. Clearly the government need to tackle this exclusion. We firmly believe that the government need to listen to learners and remove the financial barriers faced by disabled students across post 16 education.

" Furthermore, whilst we welcome this increase, we are also looking to the government to remove all caps on DSA.

" We believe artificial 'upper limits' are unhelpful and potentially obstructive to disabled students advocating on the basis of their individual needs- and we believe that, the government has an ideal opportunity to improve the prospects of disabled students by introducing further increases."

ENDS